How All Blacks winger Emoni Narawa’s year of redemption started with yet another setback

Saturday, 28 February 2026

Emoni Narawa will make his first start of the Chiefs’ Super Rugby Pacific season on Saturday, after yet another injury hiccup.

What: Super Rugby Pacific, Rd 3, Chiefs v Crusaders; Where: FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton; When: Saturday, 7.05pm; Live on Sky Sport 1.

You really couldn’t script some of this stuff for Emoni Narawa.

There are some rugby players who build a reputation of being injury-prone. Can’t string more than a few games together without being invalided again. Then, there’s Narawa, who just seems to cop brutal blows at the most inconvenient of times.

Over the last three years, the Chiefs winger has suffered a series of sidelinings that has meant one of the most electric players in Super Rugby Pacific has all of four international caps to show for it.

The dead feeling in Narawa’s left ankle remains a cruel reminder of his 2023 World Cup heartbreak, where, after a try-scoring debut in Argentina two months prior, he then had his tournament ended before it started after being crippled by a slipped disc in his back.

Working his way back to the top level in 2024, Narawa earned a second test cap, against his native Fiji in San Diego, only to then go somewhat curiously unwanted in the Rugby Championship and northern tour squads, with wrist surgery then scratching him from the All Blacks XV tour he’d been selected for.

Emoni Narawa leaves Eden Park after scoring early in the win over the Springboks but soon later suffering a broken rib and punctured lung.

Then, of course, there was 2025. After a solid performance against France in Wellington, it was four tests later before a wing spot became open again. And that superb win over the Springboks at Eden Park started in such style for Narawa with his stunning second-minute try. Then just a few minutes later he was hobbling off with what was not only a broken rib, but also later found to be a punctured lung.

So you can imagine, then, in this 2026 year of redemption (and what is also the final one of his current New Zealand Rugby contract), the horror of yet another setback before a ball had even been kicked, which ended up delaying his start to the campaign.

As the Chiefs were putting their final touches on their pre-Christmas block of training, it was running in Raglan which proved the latest undoing.

“Obviously I’m getting old,” Narawa, 26, tells the Waikato Times, able to now chuckle about his misfortune.

“The good old Garry Jack ‒ my back ‒ didn’t really cope well with the hills.

“Obviously with hills when you’re running you tend to run upright, and then a bit of load [goes] on the back and it just tends to stiffen up real bad.”

Thanks to his bad luck with injuries, Emoni Narawa has been restricted to just four test matches over the past three years.

With the knowledge of his recent serious back injury and associated nerve issues, Narawa had to pull back on training, and while he got minutes in the second pre-season game against the Hurricanes in Porirua, he wasn’t considered ready for round one against the Blues.

Instead, he turned out for the development team, incidentally still back on that same Eden Park turf which had been so cruel to him five months earlier, in a test match which really had the makings of him nailing the All Blacks’ highly-contestable right-wing berth.

“Look, it was devastating, really. I had my chance and only survived four minutes of it,” Narawa recalls, of when he had simply gone up to contest a high ball, but copped a knee to the body from Springboks first-five Handré Pollard.

“I ended up staying four days at hospital… it was nasty.

“I had an x-ray and they found a broken rib, then the next day they decided to have a CT scan just to have a good look, and they found that I had a punctured lung.”

While obviously “really gutting”, Narawa notes the silver lining amongst all the pain was the chance to be with his “girls” ‒ partner Danielle and daughters, Milla, 3, and Nyla, 6 months.

“My daughter was only a month old by then, so it was pretty cool to stay home and just be a dad,” he says.

Emoni Narawa has 30 tries in 50 appearances for the Chiefs.

“I always say my support system is what gets me through those tight moments.”

That’s why, after last weekend coming off the bench in the round-two win over the Highlanders in Dunedin to notch a 50th cap for the Chiefs (after seven for the Blues) he described as an “awesome achievement”, Narawa was quick to defer praise.

“I honestly can’t do it without my partner, she’s done everything for me, she’s held off her dream [being a teacher] so I can chase mine. So it’s massive credit to her, really.”

With the Chiefs at home for the first time this season on Saturday night, in a final re-match against the Crusaders, Narawa will have his crew there in the stands, including baby Nyla at her first fixture.

It coincides with his promotion back into the No 14 jersey which new recruit, and 2025 Moana Pasifika star, Kyren Taumoefolau, had donned the first fortnight, in a back-three which features stiff competition.

Now, in what shapes as a massive year for the Chiefs, who are competition favourites and looking to rid their bridesmaids tags after three consecutive lost finals; and also the All Blacks, who will soon have a new coach and whose immense schedule includes a special tour to South Africa, there are some clear big targets for Narawa. Should his body play ball.

“I’ve definitely had my fair share of injuries. It’s gutting, man. One moment you’re chasing your dream and next minute you’re on the floor.

“Unfortunately it’s just the nature of the game, injuries will always happen, and I just can’t catch my luck at the moment, it seems like I’ve run out of good luck.

“The last couple of injuries I’ve had have are not your normal injuries. So hopefully this season luck is a bit on my side.

“I guess you appreciate the game a bit more, because, as devastating as it is [sustaining the injuries he has], sometimes injuries can just finish your career like that. So I’m just more grateful whenever I take the field.”

Chiefs: Etene Nanai-Seturo, Emoni Narawa, Daniel Rona, Quinn Tupaea, Leroy Carter, Josh Jacomb, Xavier Roe, Luke Jacobson (c), Kaylum Boshier, Simon Parker, Tupou Vaa’i, Josh Lord, George Dyer, Samisoni Taukei’aho, Jared Proffit. Reserves: Tyrone Thompson, Benét Kumeroa, Reuben O’Neill, Samipeni Finau, Wallace Sititi, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Tepaea Cook-Savage, Lalakai Foketi.

Crusaders: Will Jordan, Chay Fihaki, Leicester Fainga’anuku, David Havili (c), Sevu Reece, Taha Kemara, Noah Hotham, Christian Lio-Willie, Ethan Blackadder, Dom Gardiner, Jamie Hannah, Antonio Shalfoon, Fletcher Newell, George Bell, Tamaiti Williams. Reserves: Manamaua Letiu, George Bower, Seb Calder, Tahlor Cahill, Corey Kellow, Louie Chapman, James White, Dallas McLeod.