New Zealand Warriors have announced their Under 19 SG Ball squad for 2025 and there are a few key notes to highlight ahead of the New South Wales Rugby League junior representative season starting soon. NZW also announced an U17 Harold Matthews Cup squad but no one should be too fussed about youngsters in that age bracket. There is one wrinkle that needs to be highlighted from the U17 squad though...

Bishop Neal (Hornby) and Christiano Elia (Riccarton) were both named in the NZRL Secondary Schools Under 16 team. Both started for St Thomas of Canterbury College in the NSST final against De La Salle College with Neal winning the overall tournament MVP award for his mahi at edge forward, while Elia started in the halves and was named starting halfback for the NZRL SSU16 team.

These two lads from Christchurch were good enough to be starting players in the best schoolboy team in Aotearoa while still U16. Neal's dominant mahi generated plenty of hype but Elia is an important youngster to track given is play-making role for STOCC and that he featured in a Under 14 NZW team in 2023.

This flows into the group of NZW U19s who played in last year's NSST final...

St Thomas of Canterbury

• Meihana Pauling: Halswell - Fullback

• Isaiah Savea: Hornby - Bench hooker

• Micah Sula: Hornby - Prop

De La Salle College

• Ambrose Puluno: Otahuhu - Prop

• Rico Toeava-Ward: Mangere East - Halves

• Tepatasi Laumalili: Mangere East - Bench

All of which is part of an exciting regional mix that NZW are building across all their teams. Given that STOCC is the best rugby league school in Aotearoa, the Canterbury region is brewing as an undercover force in Aotearoa rugby league. Along with the three lads who are named in the NZW U19 squad and played in the NZSS final, there is Lennox Tuiloma (Linwood) who is ruled out of the SG Ball season due to injury but depending on his availability, his talent makes it highly likely that he could appear for the Under 21 Jersey Flegg team at some point.

Rugby league goes far beyond STOCC in Canterbury and even the South Island though. Rico Lemalie is another Linwood junior who goes to Christ's College and he's in the NZW U19 squad along with Kairus Booth-Hill (Balclutha) and Mason Lome-Hindle (Dunedin). Both have come through the Southern Zone academy that is associated with NZW and Booth-Hill was a consistently performer for the NZW U17 team last year.

NZW also have Callum Jones in the U19 squad who is from Kaimaumau and goes to Kaitaia College. Kaimaumau is located north of Kaitaia on the way to Cape Reinga, so the 2025 NZW U19 squad has a player from the far north and the deep south as Balclutha sits between Dunedin and Invercargill.

Jones is the nephew of Stacey Jones but as this yarn lays out, there isn't much rugby league that far north in Aotearoa and so Jones was grinding through long travel trips to play rugby union. Jones' ability saw him feature for Auckland Blues Under 18s last year along with Connor Bowden, who is in the NZW U19 squad coming out of Botany Downs Secondary College in Auckland.

While Jones has a clear link to NZW, Bowden doesn't appear to have much rugby league history and this points to an NZW scouting deep cut. They played for the same Blues U18 team so perhaps NZW scouted Bowden from his mahi playing alongside Jones as well as commanding various rugby union representative honours from a less trendy 1st 15 school.

Two players in the NZW U19 squad were reported as having Train/Trial contracts this summer in Augustino Filipo (Mangere East) and Kahu Capper (Western Suburbs - New Plymouth). This means that these two have been contracted to spend the summer training with the NRL squad while still being U19s and while they are likely to get some SG Ball footy early this year, they should quickly progress up the grades.

Filipo is one of the U19s who has already progressed through the grades, playing 14 games of Under 21 Jersey Flegg last year. Other players who are in the 2025 U19 squad and played U21s last year are Hiraka Waitai-Haenga (Hamilton Boys High School), Maui Winitana-Patelesio (Te Aroha) and Paea Junior Sikuvea (Mangere East).

Here are the number of games these lads played in U21s last year (U19 games)...

• Augustino Filipo: 14 (7)

• Hiraka Waitai-Haenga: 2 (8)

• Maui Winitana-Patelesio 13 (8)

• Paea Junior Sikuvea: 4 (7)

One last note is the return of Jack Thompson from Australia. Thompson started last year in the Newcastle Knights U17 squad and made a mid-season move to NZW that coincided with more winning footy for the U17 NZW team on their way to the championship win. Thompson is a half from Cessnock and even though Jesse Soric returned to Australia after playing U19/U21 for NZW last year, this continues the theme of NZW recruiting young Aussie halves at all levels.

Luke Hanson is likely to be a starting half for the NSW Cup team and Jett Cleary will probably begin the season as a starting half for the U21s. Tallan Egan played U19/U21s last year and could be a fullback/half for the U21s team this year, then there is Thompson coming up the ranks along with any other young Aussie halves who NZW have recruited.

Most notably, there are lots of Aotearoa halves still in the mix and this increases the competitive depth in a crucial position. Winitana-Patelesio and Toeava-Ward are joined by Tyrone Hurt-Pickering (Marist) as notable halves in the U19 squad from Aotearoa, then there is also Elia leading the next wave of local play-makers.

The U19 SG Ball season starts on February 2nd and NZW have two games in Sydney to start their campaign, before three consecutive home games. Then there are three games in Australia with their last game in Aotearoa. Here are the dates and venues for the home games...

• February 15th vs Bulldogs: Hamilton

• February 23rd vs Steelers: North Harbour

• March 2nd vs Storm: Pukekohe

• April 6th vs Roosters: Pukekohe

Here is a regional breakdown for the whole squad…

Northland

• Callum Jones (Kaitaia)

Auckland

• Ambrose Puluno

• Asher Norman-Te Pou

• Augustino Filipo

• Compton Purcell

• Connor Bowden

• Ezekiel Davidson-Fa'aiouso

• George Kite

• Gordon Afoa

• Hame Kivalu

• Lucky Kali

• Militonimolela Sikuvea

• Noah Jensen

• Paea Sikuvea

• Te Paeroa Wi Neera

• Tepatasi Laumalii

• Tyrone Hurt-Pickering

• Waka Tate

Waikato/Taranaki

• Hiraka Waitai-Haenga (Hamilton)

• Romana Whitiora (Turangawaeae)

• Turama Paranihi (Hamilton)

• Kahu Capper (New Plymouth)

Wellington/Manawatu

• Dezman Laban

• Elijah Solomona

• Joseph Ratcliffe (Palmerston North)

• Maui Winitana-Patelesio

South Island

• Isaiah Savea

• Kairus Booth-Hill (Balclutha)

• Mason Lome-Hindle (Dunedin)

• Meihana Pauling

• Michah Sula

• Rico Lemalie

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