Jordan Riki will be the only player from the Christchurch region in the NRL or NRLW Grand Final but his 2025 NRL season reflects the continued rise of rugby league in the South Island's biggest city.
The 2025 NRL season is almost finished and Pacific Championship footy is just around the corner, so let's check in with the five biggest movers and groovers for Aotearoa Kiwis.
New Zealand Warriors women didn't make the NRLW Finals in 2025 but they showed their mana in dealing with adversity and offered many positive flashes throughout the season that will provide strong foundations to build upon.
NRL Finals are now joined by NRLW Finals and there are lots of folks from Aotearoa involved in the eight games across both competitions.
NRL Finals start this weekend and every team involved has a Kiwi-NRL junior named, while Bulldogs are the only team who have named less than three players with links to Aotearoa.
New Zealand Warriors will play NRL finals for the second season of the two Andys era and given that they made the finals just once in 11 seasons prior to coach Andrew Webster taking over, being sad about finals footy seems insane.
New Zealand Warriors have had their best NSW Cup season of the two Andys era and that's an almighty achievement given that this is their third consecutive year of top-four mahi in NSW Cup.
Less yarns, more facts and figures for New Zealand Warriors in the NRL ahead of their game vs Parramatta Eels at Mt Smart on Friday night.
New Zealand Warriors have an NRL game vs Gold Coast Titans on Saturday and an NRLW game vs Cronulla Sharks on Sunday as both teams try to stay steady in the finals mix.
New Zealand Warriors Women have won two games in a row and this Saturday they play the first of three games in Hamilton against Canberra Raiders who are yet to win an NRLW game this season.
New Zealand Warriors depth is being challenged at the NRL level and this has flowed down through the pipeline as players step up to cover promotions.
All four New Zealand Warriors teams will play against Bulldogs in Sydney on Saturday in a epic game day of rugby league between the two organisations.
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava made his NRL debut for NZ Warriors in the loss to Dolphins and he is the 13th Kiwi-NRL junior to debut this season.
The Kiwi-NRL umbrella includes all those who played junior footy in Aotearoa and many of them are eligible for Samoa or Tonga, so here are the best emerging players who come from Aotearoa but seem likely to represent Samoa or Tonga in international rugby league.
New Zealand Warriors have an intriguing weekend of NRL, NRLW, NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup coming up and it's led by tricky encounters for the premier teams.
New Zealand Warriors have settled back into their gritty footy with consecutive wins vs Tigers and Knights.
Chris Vea'ila took the tally to 12 Kiwi-NRL debuts in 2025 playing at right centre for Cronulla Sharks in their win vs Sydney Roosters.
Tevita Naufahu was the 11th Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2025 when he played on the wing for Dolphins vs Sharks and he's backed it up with another appearance in the win vs Cowboys.
New Zealand Warriors were excellent with four wins across their top four grades last weekend and they now head to Newcastle for NRL/NRLW games, while the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup teams host their Melbourne Storm equivalents in Auckland.
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have started their first NRLW season with two wins and almost half of their team coming from Aotearoa.