Rieko Ioane: the Ponsonby kid who scored on debut at 19 and became a 40-try All Black

For most of their childhood Rieko Ioane and his brother Akira shared a bedroom in a two-bedroom house in Mt Eden, close enough, Rieko once joked, that his big brother could see everything he did. Both became All Blacks. Rieko got there first, at 19, and scored on debut. Ten years on he has played 91 Tests on the wing and at centre, and on RUGBE's records his 40 Test tries are the eighth most by any All Black. He reached 20 in only 19 Tests, a pace no All Black except Joe Rokocoko has bettered. In 2026 he came home from a season with Leinster, and he will play for the Blues again in 2027.

Where he comes from

Rieko Edward Ioane was born in Auckland on 18 March 1997 into a rugby family. His father, Eddie Ioane, was a lock who played for Western Samoa, starting with a Test against Tonga in Apia in 1990, and was part of the Samoan side at the 1991 World Cup, the team that beat Wales. His mother, Sandra Wihongi, was also a lock and played for the Black Ferns at RugbyFest in 1990. Eddie later became president of the Ponsonby club and Sandra its club manager.

The plan, Rieko told the NZ Herald in 2017, "was for all of us to be locks". Akira, 21 months older, did play lock for the Auckland Grammar First XV before moving to No 8. Rieko had other ideas. "I just never wanted to be anywhere near the forwards," he said. "The closest I got was halfback."

Their father put the boys into everything: water polo, athletics, touch, tag and league. On Saturdays they played league in the morning and union in the afternoon. Rieko's athletics events were the 100 metres and the high jump.

Ponsonby and Auckland Grammar

The brothers came through the junior grades at Ponsonby, and Rieko kept turning up on the sideline to support the premier side even in Test weeks. It is, he said in 2017, "a special club not just for myself and my family". At Ponsonby and at Auckland Grammar he always played centre, and he grew up idolising Tana Umaga, Ma'a Nonu and Sonny Bill Williams.

He made the Auckland Grammar First XV at 16 and played two seasons in it, according to Wikipedia, and in 2014 he captained New Zealand Secondary Schools.

Sevens, Auckland and the Blues

Gordon Tietjens put him on the world stage at 17. He made his debut for the All Blacks Sevens at the Wellington Sevens in 2015, and the sevens game, he said, "opened my eyes by playing with flair and razzle". Later that year he made his debut for Auckland. In 2016 he went to the Rio Olympics with the sevens team, was named the All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year, and began his Super Rugby career with the Blues.

He also played for the Māori All Blacks in 2015, and a match against Fiji was his first on the wing. It did not come naturally. "I was pretty lost," he admitted. "People were putting kicks over me."

The All Blacks at 19

In 2016 the All Blacks called him into their squad as cover for the injured Waisake Naholo. On 12 November in Rome he replaced Israel Dagg in the 50th minute against Italy and scored in the 73rd, in a 68-10 win. He was 19 years and 239 days old, the eighth-youngest All Black at the time, according to the NZ Rugby Museum.

The 2017 season was his breakout year. He opened the Blues' Super Rugby season with a hat-trick against the Rebels, and in June he crossed the line three times against the British and Irish Lions in the Blues' 22-16 win, although two of the tries were disallowed. The next day he was named in the All Blacks squad. He started the first Test on the left wing ahead of Julian Savea and scored twice in a 30-15 win at Eden Park, then played in the 24-21 loss in Wellington before influenza ruled him out of the drawn third Test.

He finished the 2017 Rugby Championship as joint top try-scorer with Israel Folau, including an 80-metre intercept try in the 25-24 win over South Africa in Cape Town. In November he was ruled out of the final Test in Cardiff with a shoulder problem, then declared fit, and scored twice in a 33-18 win over Wales. He scored ten tries in 11 Tests that year. World Rugby named him its Breakthrough Player of the Year, he was nominated for Player of the Year alongside the winner, Beauden Barrett, and at home he won the Tom French Cup as New Zealand's Māori player of the year. "It's a credit to himself and his family," said Sonny Bill Williams.

In 2018 he kept scoring: twice against France at Eden Park, then a hat-trick inside 12 minutes in the 49-14 win in Dunedin. Two more against Argentina in Buenos Aires in September took him to 20 Test tries in his 19th Test, and he shared top spot in the Rugby Championship try-scoring list again, with Barrett and South Africa's Aphiwe Dyantyi. He scored 11 tries in 11 Tests that year.

From the wing to centre

At the 2019 World Cup in Japan, Sevu Reece and George Bridge were the first-choice wings, and Ioane played two pool games, scoring against Canada, before starting the 40-17 bronze final win over Wales.

His future, he had always said, was at centre. "It was all centre growing up and that's where I want to end up," he said in 2017. In October 2020 he made his first Test start at No 13, in a 16-16 draw with Australia in Wellington, and from 2021 he wore the jersey for most of the next four seasons. On 7 November 2020 in Brisbane the Ioane brothers played their first Test together, Akira at blindside and Rieko on the wing; on RUGBE's records they played 21 Tests together, every one of Akira's Tests.

With the Blues, Ioane won the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman title in 2021 and played in the 2022 final, lost 21-7 to the Crusaders at Eden Park. In April 2023 he re-signed with New Zealand Rugby until the end of 2027. At the World Cup in France later that year he started at centre in the quarter-final win over Ireland, the semi-final win over Argentina and the 12-11 final loss to South Africa.

The Blues' wait for a full Super Rugby title ended on 22 June 2024. In front of 44,035 at Eden Park they beat the Chiefs 41-10, with Rieko at centre and Akira at blindside, Akira scoring the first try. It was the Blues' first title in 21 years.

Leinster

In April 2025 Ioane confirmed he would use a sabbatical clause in his contract to spend six months with Leinster in Ireland, following Jordie Barrett. Some Irish fans remembered his words to Johnny Sexton after the 2023 World Cup quarter-final, RTÉ noted, but Leinster coach Leo Cullen called him "an exciting, versatile outside back". Ioane said it was a chance to "grow my game and experience something different with my family".

He made his debut off the bench against Harlequins in the Champions Cup on 6 December 2025, and scored tries against Ulster, Edinburgh, Sale and the Lions as the season went on. Leinster reached the Champions Cup final in Bilbao in May 2026 and lost 41-19 to Bordeaux Bègles. "That's footy and that's finals," Ioane told the Irish Examiner. In June he scored in the 20-11 United Rugby Championship semi-final win over the Stormers and again in the Grand Final, a 36-7 win over the Bulls on 19 June.

2026: left out, and back

Three days after the URC final, Dave Rennie named his first All Blacks squad without him. "Obviously Rieks is still in Ireland," Rennie said, adding that the players left out were "really disappointed". He did not close the door: "His versatility means he is a strong chance to go there," he said of the tour to South Africa.

In July, with Leroy Carter injured, Ioane was called into the squad as outside-back cover for the Ireland Test, and he was then named in the 44-man squad for South Africa. He was named at centre against the Lions in a midweek game in Johannesburg, and on 12 September came off the bench in Baltimore for his first Test of the year. In October he came off the bench in both Bledisloe Cup wins, and in Sydney on 17 October he scored his 40th Test try in a 43-21 win.

Style and standing

Pace has always been the starting point. As a 20-year-old he insisted he was faster than Hurricanes halfback TJ Perenara: "Make sure you get that in there." Tietjens's sevens programme gave him what he called "flair and razzle", and his coaches have since valued the versatility to play wing and centre. The NZ Rugby Museum lists his versatility and "world-class try-scoring ability" among the reasons he became a mainstay of the All Blacks.

Honours: World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year 2017 and Player of the Year nominee 2017; Tom French Memorial Māori Player of the Year 2017; All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year 2016; Super Rugby Pacific champion 2024; Super Rugby Trans-Tasman champion 2021; United Rugby Championship champion 2026; Rugby World Cup runner-up 2023 and third 2019.

Where he is now

Ioane, 29, is on the bench for the first Test of the Nations Championship tour, against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday morning New Zealand time, and in line for his 92nd Test, with Wales and England to follow. He is in the Blues' midfield for 2027 and contracted to New Zealand Rugby to the end of 2027, the year of the World Cup in Australia.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. Club, provincial, sevens and Leinster figures are from Wikipedia, updated June 2026.