When Simon Mannering leads the Warriors out on to Westpac Stadium to meet the Bulldogs tonight it may remind him of his first full season playing league when he was part of the Wellington under-18 side in 2004. APNZ's Daniel Richardson takes a look back at a golden period in Wellington rugby league.
Except in 2004.
Seven members of the Wellington under-18 side from that year went on to play in the NRL - Simon Mannering (Warriors), Sika Manu (Storm and Panthers), Isaac Luke (Rabbitohs), John Te Reo (Broncos), Tim Natusch (Knights), Alan Shirnack (Tigers) and Marvin Karawana (Knights) - while a handful of others played for the Junior Kiwis or in reserve grade.
They easily won the under-18 national championships in 2003 and 2004, which marked the first time a Wellington side had won such a title.
Josh Davis and Wiremu Weepu eventually turned out in the NSW Cup, while Manu Weepu has since played league for Canterbury and provincial rugby for West Coast.
Joseph Parekura was a Junior Kiwi in 2004, Hanan Laban - son of rugby commentator Ken - played Jersey Flegg for the Newcastle Knights and had a stint playing in France, while Tuwharetoa Whakatihi and Julian Enoka both went on to play in Australia with limited success.
Manu Leiataua also found a home playing rugby for Harbour in the ITM Cup.
Tokai Nohotima, Hayden Magele, Ben Taraeka and Desta Buchanan all turned out for club sides in Wellington after their junior rep days were over, while the whereabouts of a handful of others couldn't be traced.
It's unlikely that such a strong team will surface again from Wellington, with most of the city's best talent now signed to NRL clubs at 15 or 16.
Leighton Karawana, who coached the side in 2003 and 2004, knew they had a special group of boys when he started helping them out a couple of years before as his son, Marvin, was in the side.
This group of players set the tone for the likes of Warriors prop Ben Matulino, Panthers second-rower Matt Robinson and Storm forward Tohu Harris to push in to the NRL.
Usually age-group league in New Zealand is an Auckland benefit with the other regions providing teams to try and test sides from north of the Bombay Hills.
But for a couple of years after the turn of the millenium, Wellington broke the mould.
"A lot of those [NRL] scouts were starting to talk to our players back in '04 once they found out we were winning pretty consistently - pretty dominantly I might add - in some of those games and so whispers started filtering through," Karawana Sr said.
"Before it was just them going to Auckland picking all the Auckland players. That '03 side made those scouts from Australia think 'oh, shit, is this a one-off or what'. But then when the '04 team started dominating those Auckland teams, obviously they started looking a bit more closely at these Wellington boys."
Sam Tagataese, John Monu and Chris Fox were all national champions and Junior Kiwis in 2003 but were too old to be part of the Wellington side the following year.
Tagataese went on to play in the NRL for Melbourne and the Gold Coast Titans and is now under contract with Cronulla, while Monu and Fox both played in the local Brisbane competition.
But the 2004 team was one out of the box and Mannering fondly recalled his brief stint in Wellington.
"I came up from Nelson as a bit of an outsider. It was pretty much my first real crack at rugby league. I played a bit in Nelson. The coach from Nelson [Paul Bergman] went over to Wellington and told me to come along," Mannering said.
"When I started training with the team, I was only new to the game but I was like, 'man, these guys are pretty sharp'. I knew a couple of them already had NRL contracts but were still in Wellington finishing school.
"That was my first taste of rugby league, with this team of guys who ended up being great players. I really enjoyed my time. We went on to win it pretty easily. I was pretty lucky to be a part of it."
And, what will likely be an amusing anecdote in Mannering's book if he ever writes one, he slept on Bergman's couch when he arrived in Wellington.
"Paul's couch? [I was there for a] couple of months. Doing a bit of work, playing footy. He kicked me off his couch and I lived in this terrible block of flats. It was good fun, though. I was pretty young and living away from home for the first time," Mannering said.
"I owe a lot to Paul. He was really good to me. It's fair to say I probably wouldn't be here now if he didn't go out on a limb and give me a crack."
Mannering went on to make his Warriors debut in 2005 and now captains his club and country.
He will lead the Warriors out on to Westpac Stadium to meet the Bulldogs tonight in their round nine NRL clash and that venue also holds special significance to that 2004 Wellington under-18 side.
It was there where they captured the national crown as they beat an Auckland team that included Manu Vatuvei and Cooper Vuna in a curtain-raiser to a Warriors versus Bulldogs NRL game on April 16, 2004.
Marvin Karawana, who played 34 games for the Knights between 2007 and 2011 before he returned to Wellington last year and made his provincial rugby debut for Hawke's Bay in last season's ITM Cup, said that 2004 side was a special lot.
"It was a pretty good side and I don't know how many teams, especially from Wellington, have had that sort of success with converting over to the NRL and over to Aussie. And being able to win two national championships too, so it was a pretty fair side."
Manu spent time in Brisbane before making his NRL debut with the Storm in 2007 but has linked with the Panthers this year and said he would always remember his first encounter with Luke, who used to play in the backs before switching to dummy-half.
"He came down from Taranaki and we didn't know him and he came in to the trials and I think one of my first runs I ran in to him and he put me on my back and I was like 'I'm not running at him again," Manu laughs.
"He was the best tackler in our team and I don't know if you know, but everyone calls him 'Bully' and he's the smallest bloke but he's a real bully on the field."
Luke is of course now the starting hooker for the Rabbitohs and Manu, Mannering and Luke were all part of New Zealand's World Cup-winning campaign in 2008 but Manu has now switched his allegiance to Tonga.
The final word is left for the team's coach, Leighton Karawana.
"I think Ken Laban summed it up quite well when he labelled this Wellington '04 team would be probably the strongest Wellington team ever in the history of Wellington Rugby League," Karawana said.
"And that's not taking away from all the great players that Wellington have had over the past especially the likes of the [John] Whittakers and those past Kiwis and the [Kevin] Tamatis and that. But having them all in one team and to see what they've done, a lot of them were like role models for those others that are currently either in Australia trying to make in to the big time or are already in there."
Wellington under-18 2004: Simon Mannering, Marvin Karawana, Sika Manu, Isaac Luke, Hanan Laban, Josh Davis, Tim Natusch, Alan Shirnack, John Te Reo, Manu Leiataua, Wiremu Weepu, Manu Weepu, Tuwharetoa Whakatihi, Joseph Parekura, Hanan Laban, Julian Enoka, Pita Kemp, Kurt Samuels, Lale Ausage, Tokai Nohotima, Hayden Magele, Ben Taraeka, Desta Buchanan
