The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals
This past weekend a bunch of Kiwi-NRL juniors played in Queensland Rugby League's Under 21s final between Wynnum-Manly Seagulls and Townsville Blackhawks. Wynnum wound up winning that final, although I'm not so fussed about that as these age-group finals in Australia serve as another route to breaking down Kiwi-NRL juniors in Australia. Each team in this final had two Kiwi-NRL juniors and these funky Kiwi-NRL wrinkles stretch back earlier this year to the Queensland and New South Wales Under 18/19 finals as well.
Wynnum won their Hastings Deering Colts (U21) title with Sefa Roache-Faimalo and Caius Fa'atili coming off the bench. Roache-Faimalo is a Marist Saints junior who played nine games this year in U21s, while Fa'atili played 13 games and is a Hornby Panthers junor in Christchurch. Wynnum have a connection with Brisbane Broncos as well as Marsden State High School, although Marsden announced a partnership with Gold Coast Titans earlier this year.
As explored in previous junior Kiwi-NRL yarns, Wynnum also have Cassius Cowley (Pikiao) and Nathaniel Tangimataiti (Ellerslie) who played Mal Meninga Cup (U18) earlier this year. Both also played for Marsden State.
Townsville's U21 team had Zinzaan Martin (Hornby) starting on the wing and Tyson Chase (Hato Paora College) starting at prop. Chase played 17 games this year while Martin played 11 games with both in North Queensland Cowboys system - featuring the signature Cowboys Kiwi-NRL recruitment vibe of hitting Aotearoa's regions.
Big ups to Canterbury rugby league. Martin came up through Hornby and St Thomas of Canterbury College which also laid out the development pathway for Caius and Felix Fa'atili, as well as Broncos forward Jordan Riki. Pretty buzzy how the Queensland's U21 final had two players from Hornby/St Thomas on opposing teams and this highlights the depth of Aotearoa's Kiwi-NRL takeover.
Townsville also made the Queensland U18 final where they faced Tweed Heads Seagulls. Tweed Heads had Deine Mariner (Marist Saints) starting at centre for the final while Keano Kini (Northcote Tigers/Marist Saints) had played during the season. Townsville had D'Jazirhae Pua'avase (Manurewa Marlins) starting as an edge forward while Arama Kite (Manukura/Tamatea Rugby) didn't play the final but had featured during the season.
Since being signed by Cowboys, Pua'avase has been with Kirwan State High School. Kite on the other had appears to have played MMC with Townsville before returning to Aotearoa to play rugby in the Hawke's Bay competition for Tamatea Rugby Club as a flanker. This may have signaled that Kite's time with Cowboys has finished, although this is also in alignment with NRL clubs bringing Kiwi-NRL juniors over to Australia to play U18s which only runs for 10 weeks or so early in the year thus allowing them to return to Aotearoa.
Kite was playing U18s rugby league then open men's rugby union and I reckon Cowboys would love that as a development step up for one of their prospects. That’s two Townsville teams in the major Queensland age-group competition finals and four Kiwi-NRL juniors; one from South Auckland, one from Christchurch, one from Manawatu and one from Hawke's Bay.
In New South Wales all competitions were impacted by covid, except for SG Ball that was held earlier in the year. This year the SG Ball competition went up to Under 19s and Canberra Raiders won the final with Jack Sandford (Christchurch Boys High School 1st 15) starting at fullback, while Sione Moala (Manurewa Marlins) was starting halfback. These lads defeated an Illawara Steelers team with Tyrell Sloan starting at fullback and Junior Amone in the halves, both of whom went on to play NRL this year.
Illawara had the NRL fullback and half, but Canberra won with the Kiwi-NRL juniors at fullback and half. This taps into another major Kiwi-NRL trend with Raiders one of the busier teams recruiting from Aotearoa and their NSW Cup (reserve grade) team featured a bunch of players recruited from Aotearoa who will be eager to build into next season; Leo Thompson, Sila Titiuti, Brigham Moeakiola, Ata Mariota.
To round it all off we have three competitions and 10 Kiwi-NRL juniors who either played in the final or were part of those teams during the team. Of these 10 Kiwi-NRL juniors, Moala was the only one graced with selection in the NZRL 'Notable' Players list that included players from Harold Mathews (U16) all the way up to certified NRL players. The fact that only one from this group of 10 Kiwi-NRL juniors was named shows how bonkers that notable players list was.
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Peace and love.