Career in New Zealand Naoupu's professional career began in 2004 with
Canterbury, where he played for two seasons. He then joined
Tasman Makos for a season before moving to
Hawke's Bay. He made the breakthrough to
Super Rugby in 2008 with the
Highlanders in his second season at Hawkes Bay.
Move to Ireland Naoupu left
Highlanders in 2009, moving to Irish provincial side
Connacht. Joining ahead of the 2009–10 season, Naoupu made his debut for the side in a
2009–10 European Challenge Cup game with
Worcester Warriors on 12 December 2009. He made his league debut in the province's
2009–10 Celtic League game against Irish rivals
Munster on 26 December that year, starting the game and playing the full 80 minutes. Naoupu played another seven league games for the side, starting in all of them and scoring a try. In Europe, Naoupu played six of Connacht's eight games as they reached the last four, and scored two tries against
Olympus Madrid. Naoupu departed Connacht at the end of his first season. He moved to
Japan, having agreed a deal with
Top League side
Kobelco Steelers.
Japanese rugby Naoupu joined Japanese side
Kobelco Steelers for the 2010–11 season. During his time at the club, the team finished fifth in the
2010–11 Top League, missing out on the title play-offs by one position, and were level on points with
Suntory Sungoliath who came fourth. Though the Steelers failed to make their league's title play-offs, they did reach the
48th All Japan Rugby Football Championship through a wild card play-off. The Steelers reached the semi-finals, but were narrowly beaten 37–33 by Suntory, who went on to win the final.
Return to Connacht in the
2011–12 Heineken Cup Following one season in Japan, Naoupu returned to play for
Connacht in the 2011–12 season. Naoupu made his first appearance at the top level of European rugby on 11 November 2011, when he started against
Harlequins in Connacht's opening
2011–12 Heineken Cup game. Naoupu also started in all five other games the province played in the competition, including Connacht's first ever win at that level, in the return game with Harlequins on 20 January 2012. In the following season, Naoupu was again vying with McKeon for the starting position on the team. Naoupu started the first two games of the
2013–14 Pro12 against
Zebre and
Cardiff Blues, and was used as a replacement in the next two. The
2013–14 Heineken Cup saw Naoupu start in half of Connacht's games and come on as a replacement in the other three. He scored his first ever European try on 19 October 2013 against Zebre. Naoupu suffered an injury in February 2014 however, which ruled him out for the rest of the season and he ended up making a total of 14 league appearances, with just six of these coming as starts. ==Retirement from Professional Rugby==