1231 Kyle Preston

Halfback Kyle Preston’s journey to the black jersey has been anything but conventional. A product of a small Wellington school, Preston was completing a roofing apprenticeship and playing club footy when his form for the province helped Wellington crack the NPC in 2023, then lift the title in 2024 as the competition’s top try-scorer with eight tries. That form earned him a Crusaders contract for the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, where he marked his debut with a hat-trick against the Hurricanes after being thrown on just 10 minutes into the match for the injured Noah Hotham, and went on to play a part in that year’s grand final. Preston was named among four uncapped players in the All Blacks squad for the 2025 Lipovitan-D Rugby Championship, called in as injury cover for Cam Roigard and Noah Hotham, and earned his first Test cap that season. An instinctive support runner with a reliable boot, Preston has been retained as one of three halfbacks in the All Blacks Nations Championship and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry squads under new coach Dave Rennie.