Top 10 Kiwis to have called Canberra home

Across their four decades as a premiership club, success for the Raiders has tended to coincide with them having a healthy collection of players with New Zealand passports on their roster. 

The club based much of their recruitment strategies of the 1980s and 1990s around finding hidden gems across the Tasman and to this day their squad is littered with Kiwi talent.

As part of the NRL Telstra Premiership Footy Country Series, which is celebrating and supporting rugby league communities in regional Australia during the 2024 season, we're counting down the top Kiwis to have donned the lime green jersey of Canberra.

The series kicked off in April this year and comprises 10 themed NRL and NRLW games in total, across nine regional locations.

Top 10 Kiwis to have called Canberra home

10. Lesley Vainikolo

An astute pick up from then-coach Mal Meninga in the late 1990s, the Tongan-born, New Zealand-raised powerhouse was a world championship level junior sprinter playing rugby league in South Auckland at the time. He ended up appearing in 69 games over four seasons with the Raiders, averaging a try every two appearances despite battling severe homesickness. In the end he was the one that got away, with Vainikolo going on to become a Bradford Bulls legend who scored a phenomenal 148 tries in 152 games in the UK.

9. Matthew Timoko

Still in the early stages of a promising career, Timoko has become one of the best power centres in the NRL since debuting for the Green Machine in 2020. Set to bring up 100 games for the club next season, the 24-year-old is leading the next generation of Kiwi Raiders and has already impressed club powerbrokers with his action-first style of leadership. 

8. Iosia Soliola

Minimal fanfare accompanied Soliola's arrival in the capital in 2015, following five years in the UK with St Helens. But having successfully transitioned from the centres – where he emerged as a highly-touted prospect with the Roosters in 2005 – to the forwards, he quickly became a priceless addition to the Canberra pack. Mobile enough to play out on an edge and with the toughness and engine to also play in the middle, 'Sia' became a mainstay in the side as Canberra made it through to a pair of preliminary finals and a grand final in the late 2010s and early 2020s. 

7. John Lomax

One of the heroes of the 1994 Premiership-winning squad, Lomax was cruelly denied a spot in the side on Grand Final day after picking up a suspension in the preliminary final against North Sydney. Part of the crew of Kiwi big boppers who shaped Canberra's style through that period, Lomax was a fierce defender who pushed the limits with referees but ensured everyone respected the Raiders' pack. Now a member of the club's Hall of Fame, Lomax went on to represent the Kiwis in 16 Test matches. 

6. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad

A late pick up by the club ahead of the 2019 season, Nicoll-Klokstad immediately installed himself as the first-choice fullback and went toe-to-toe with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and James Tedesco as that season's top No.1, leading the NRL in kick return metres and sitting in the top three for runs and run metres. His performances were a key part of Canberra's run to an eventual grand final loss to the Roosters that year and he went on to play the next three seasons there before moving back home to re-join the Warriors in 2023. 

5. Jordan Rapana

While the first five games of his career came with the Titans, and his time as a Raider was briefly interrupted by a stint in Japanese rugby union, Rapana is Canberra through and through. Having now ticked up over 200 games for the Green Machine, he will be a good chance of overtaking Wiki as the club's most-capped Kiwi if he opts to play on for a 12th season in the national capital. A scorer of 103 tries so far for the club, Rapana's become one of coach Ricky Stuart's favourite talents and he has a knack for standing tall in the clutch moments. 

4. Quentin Pongia

An integral part of the club's title-winning 1994 side, Pongia brought an uncompromising edge to the Canberra pack, whether as a prop or second-rower and bar a handful of games was picked as a starter who would set the tone from word go. The South Islander appeared 74 times for the Raiders across five seasons before continuing his career at a handful of other clubs. Following his passing in 2019 after a battle with bowel cancer, greats from across the rugby league world paid tribute to Pongia's tough-as-teak approach on the field and outstanding character off it. 

3. Brent Todd

Lured to Canberra on the back of a strong tour of Australia with the Kiwis in 1986 – in which he scored three tries in mid-week matches and earned a call-up to the starting side for the third and final Test against the Kangaroos – Todd attracted a hefty transfer fee at the time but went on to prove he was worth every cent. An ultra-consistent prop, the Cantabrian helped the Raiders become a Premiership force and appear in four grand finals between 1987-91. Todd formed a fearsome front row combination with Glenn Lazarus which was crucial to the Green Machine claiming back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990.

2. Joseph Tapine

On track to overtake Ruben Wiki as Canberra's most-capped Kiwi player in coming years, Tapine has been a pillar for the Raiders since moving across from the Knights at the end of 2015. Consistently among the top middle forwards in the game, the 30-year-old Wellingtonian has become a leader and a role model for the club's promising young forwards. You have to go back to before the COVID-19 pandemic to find a season in which Tapine failed to average at least 120 metres per game across a season and he's become the definition of consistency for coach Stuart.   

1. Ruben Wiki

One of the best to wear the lime green jersey and one of the greatest ever players to come out of New Zealand. Wiki started as a hard-running centre who was lethal on the ball, twice scoring four tries in a game in the 1990s, and by the end of his 224-game career as a Raider had become a ferocious forward who was feared and respected across the competition. Through the back end of the 1990s and early 2000s Wiki's bone-crunching carries and hits became a trademark of Raiders footy.