Tairāwhiti has a new Māori All Black in former Gisborne Boys’ High School First XV prop Jared Proffit.
The 31-year-old Ngāti Porou man, who plays for Taranaki and Super Rugby Pacific side the Chiefs, joins another Gisborne Boys’ old boy, Isaia Walker-Leawere (Ngāti Porou), in the side.
Walker-Leawere has alreadyplayed 12 times for the Māori All Blacks.
Trent Proffit was part of the Gisborne Boys’ First XV side who won the Super 8 championship in 2011, going through that campaign unbeaten.
He played one match for Poverty Bay as a replacement against Buller in 2012 and debuted for Taranaki in 2015.
His brothers – fullback Matt Proffit and first five-eighths Nic Proffit – played for Poverty Bay in this year’s King’s Birthday fixture against Ngāti Porou East Coast, with Nic Proffit scoring 12 points, including a try.
Older brother Trent Proffit, an openside flanker, played 15 times for East Coast between 2017 and 2022.
Rolling back the years: Jared Proffit on the charge for Gisborne Boys' High School against Hamilton Boys' High School in a Super 8 First XV game in 2011. Gisborne won the Super 8 that year and 14 years later, Proffit has made the Māori All Blacks squad for games against the Japan XV in Tokyo on June 28 and Scotland in Whangārei on July 5. Photo / Paul Rickard
Jared Proffit has played 79 times for Taranaki and was named the province’s Forward of the Year in 2023, when the Bulls won the National Provincial Championship (NPC). Taranaki are also the current Ranfurly Shield holders.
The prop made his Super Rugby Pacific debut for the Hurricanes in 2022 and signed a fulltime contract with the Chiefs in 2023.
He has appeared 22 times for the Chiefs, including their recent semifinal win over the ACT Brumbies.
Walker-Leawere, 28, played for the Gisborne Boys’ First XV and the New Zealand junior team who won the Under-20 Rugby World Cup in Georgia in 2017.
He made a sole appearance for Poverty Bay against Thames Valley in 2015. Like Proffit, he came off the reserves bench.
The lock played 22 times for Wellington between 2016 and 2018, before moving to Hawke’s Bay, where he has made 40 appearances between 2019 and last season.
Gisborne Boys' High School old boy Isaia Walker Leawere at a Māori All Blacks training session in Auckland. He will add more honours to his rugby CV after his selection for the 2025 squad. Photo / Photosport
Walker-Leawere has played in two Hawke’s Bay Ranfurly Shield tenures.
Hawke’s Bay lost the Shield to Wellington in 2022 after 14 successful defences then took it back from Wellington in 2023, defending it another four times.
Walker-Leawere’s father Kele Leawere captained Fiji at the 2007 Rugby World Cup and played 56 games for Ngāti Porou East Coast and 12 for Poverty Bay between 1996 and 2002.
Ngāti Porou can also claim another new Māori All Black in Hamilton-born, Putāruru-raised Jahrome Brown.
The openside flanker played 50 times for the Brumbies in Super Rugby before returning to his home province of Waikato this year after signing a contract with the Chiefs.
