Whalers lock Benjamin Latu has taken over the captaincy this season.
The softly spoken health science student moved over from Australia in 2023 to study.
The 24-year-old was born in New Zealand but his family moved to Australia when he was young.
He honed his rugby league skills in Sydney and added some polish when his family relocated to Brisbane.
Since moving to New Zealand, he has dabbled in rugby union as well. He is a prop in the Alhambra-Union division 1 side, but plays in the second row in league.
He is a strong ball carrier, but he is also focused on getting offloads away and putting his team-mates into holes.
The Whalers smashed the Aoraki Eels 62-12 at Forsyth Barr Stadium on the weekend.
Talented centres Ngatokotoru Mateariki and Sailusi Temaka tore up the defence.
Mateariki bagged four tries and Temaka grabbed a brace of tries early.
Latu stood out for his work rate on and off the ball.
Hooker Jak Morton shone and Latu’s second-row partner Tofatuimoana Solia thundered forward at every opportunity. He is a difficult player to tackle when he gets up to speed.
It was a record points haul for the Whalers and the camp was mostly happy with the performance.
Latu had some reservations, though.
"I think there was a high number of errors in the first half," he said.
"That's something we want to try to minimise."
The Whalers did not complete as many sets as they hoped and they know they will need to improve this weekend.
They play the Wellington Orcas in the capital today.
We have promised not to use the word "harpooned" when describing the Whalers and Orcas.
The sides have met eight times and the honours are split, four wins apiece.
The Orcas rolled the Southland Rams 20-8 in the opening round but had a bye last week.
So they have had two weeks to plot the Whalers' downfall.
"They had a really strong result against Southland. But we're just going out there just to try and focus on our game and maintain our discipline and complete our sets.
"And hopefully with that, we get the result that we're looking for."
National Premiership
Otago v Wellington, Wellington, noon
