Izzy from Gizzy enjoying Wellington

Isaia Walker-Leaware is putting his hand up for higher honours.

In fact, the 19-year old lock out of Gisborne Boys' High School has made every post a winner since moving down to Wellington to join the WRFU Academy and the nearby Poneke club at the start of this year.

He's had a taste of international rugby in Europe, as part of the New Zealand U20 side that finished fifth at the World Rugby Junior World Championships in England, and has recently joined the full Hurricanes squad for the rest of the season. He replaced another former Gisborne Boys' High School lock, Blade Thomson, who had shoulder surgery last week.

Needless to say, Walker-Leaware is enjoying his time in Wellington. "It's great at the moment, I'm learning lots and enjoying playing for Poneke and now training with the Hurricanes after returning from the U20s," he said.

Quietly spoken off the field, on it Walker-Leaware played his fifth Premier match for Poneke last Saturday, a rollicking affair that saw Poneke concede an 8-27 deficit to the Upper Hutt Rams late in the first half before coming back to win 46-32.

Two of three tries that Poneke conceded in the first 25 minutes were long-range intercepts by Rams centre Tafa Tafa. At that stage Poneke were under the pump.

"The guys got together after that third one and just reminded each other to stick to our game-plan and keep our structures and we'd come back into it," said Walker-Leaware.

Walker-Leaware was a key cog in that comeback, using his 125kg bulk to clean out several rucks and help Poneke assert authority in the set-pieces. It was his try that helped get them back into the contest. Halfback Edwin Ainley took a quick tap penalty, surged ahead and found flyhalf Greg Mullany in support, who in turn offloaded to Walker-Leaware on the 22 who broke a tackle and scuttled away to score under the uprights.

This coming weekend Poneke play Wainuiomata, the side he made his Swindale Shield debut against back in March. Poneke won 28-26 that day. Unfortunately he broke his eye socket in that first club game so missed six weeks before joining the U20s. He played one more game before going to the U20 World Championships, which was Poneke's 23-20 victory over OBU which broke their 19-game winning streak.

He expects another tough battle. "I've quickly found out that the Jubilee Cup is a tough competition and in every game you don't really know what's going to happen, so hopefully we can keep it going this Saturday."

He could come up against TJ Va'a and Peter Umaga-Jensen, two of his U20s squad teammates in who featured in recent tours to Australia and England.

He said that the U20 World Championships was a great experience. "Playing for that team was a goal and I got a lot out of the trips to Australia and England," he noted.

Walker-Leaware was first identified as a player with promise at the Hurricanes U16 tournament in the East Coast three years ago. Subsequently, he and his mum attended the Hurricanes U17 camp where the young players are educated on the six pillars - physical, technical, tactical, mental, nutrition and leadership - and he was tracked through to U18 level.

He trained with the Hurricanes for the first time last year when they went to Gisborne for their pre-season camp.

"Gisborne Boys' High School coach Tom Cairns introduced "Izzy from Gizzy" to us and he trained with us as a full member," explained Hurricanes Technical Coach Richard Watt. "He stood tall around Jeremy Thrush, James Broadhurst and Blade Thomson and company."

"He struck me as quite shy but it must have been quite imposing for him to become a member of a team with so many big names in the game with the likes of Conrad and Ma'a and particularly training with the forwards with guys like Ben Franks, Victor Vito, Brad Shields, Colesy and the locks," said Watt.

"Blade and Broadhurst are from Gisborne themselves so they were a good example to him that there is a pathway to the top side no matter where you come from.

"There was no special treatment for him, he was given his training kit and expected to train as part of the team like everyone else. As the week went on you forgot he was this schoolboy and he earned the respect of the boys as he just went about his work and became the fifth lock as we were preparing to play the Crusaders at Eketehuna. By the end of the week as he got to know everyone, he was laughing and hanging with the boys in their downtime and we got to see the shy boy from Ruatoria stand tall amongst some of the legends in the game."

Watt said that training alongside the experienced professionals this week and watching them prepare for the Super Rugby quarter-final against the Sharks is huge for Walker-Leaware.

"It's his ability to take in all the information around the six pillars of a player's development to become a top professional that will determine whether he fulfils his true potential. Izzy has genuine size and can potentially have a good playing career in front of him if he becomes that hard working professional footy player."

He was captain of the Gisborne Boys' High School First XV last year, and he said a highlight was playing in last year's Hurricanes schools knockout match against Scots College.

"That semi-final was pretty good, we drew [33-33] but we lost as Scots scored more tries than us [on the tiebreaker]. Despite the result and not progressing through to play in the final we played well and that was a good game to be part of."

Another memorable school match he was part of was in 2014 when he scored two tries for Gisborne Boys' High School against Tauranga Boys' College that Gisborne won 26-25.

In 2014 he played for the New Zealand Schools Barbarians in their series against Australia Schools and Fiji Schools at Jerry Collins Stadium at Porirua Park and last year he played for the full New Zealand Secondary Schools side against Australia.

Walker-Leaware comes from good stock. "My father played two Rugby World Cups for Fiji. He was a lock as well."

Kele Leawere played 25 Tests for Fiji and was co-captain of them at the 2007 RWC in France.

Look out for son Isaia's name in upcoming representative teams. He has been named in Wellington's U19 squad to prepare for the national tournament in Taupo in September, but if his upward trajectory continues he could make his debut for the Wellington Lions in the Mitre 10 Cup.