Monday Morning Dummy Half: Junior Pauga/Tukimihia Simpkins Kiwi-NRL Debuts
Aotearoa now has 10 Kiwi-NRL debutants in 2021 after Junior Pauga and Tukimihia Simpkins helped Wests Tigers snare a win over Brisbane Broncos. One of the low key Kiwi-NRL recruitment yarns is how the Broncos have quietly assembled perhaps the best crop of young Kiwi-NRL forwards in the competition and this was on show as TC Robati fell victim to injury, only to be replaced by Jordan Riki.
Robati is a Porirua Vikings junior from Wellington and in a weird twist, Robati and Pauga started this season in the same Wynnum-Manly Seagulls team. Riki is a Hornby Panthers junior from Christchurch and the Broncos also had Hamilton's Xavier Willison playing ball-boy as the next up forward prospect, plus Christchurch's Fa'atili brothers who are in the Broncs’ system.
Pauga had been with Wynnum in Queensland's Intrust Super Cup for a few seasons after leaving NZ Warriors. A Glenora Bears/Kelston Boys High School product, Pauga always looked like a lively, powerful runner of the footy while coming up through Warriors Under 20s footy and when pondering all the players who leave the Warriors to play reserve grade in Queensland or New South Wales - most head in the opposite direction to Pauga.
Pauga joined Wynnum to start 2019 and remember that there was minimal reserve grade in 2020, so for Pauga to command an opportunity with the Tigers is pretty damn impressive. Pauga played the first four games with Wynnum and all four were wins with Pauga putting up 4 tries, 3 try assists, 3 linebreaks, 21 tackle busts and 3 offloads in those four games. Then came five games with Tigers affiliate Western Suburbs Magpies where Pauga had 1 linebreak, 17 tackle busts and 2 offloads.
The biggest issue for Pauga will be his defence. With Wynnum this season, Pauga was tackling with 75.6 percent efficiency and that improved slightly to 79.2 percent with Western Suburbs. In his NRL debut, Pauga had 13 runs for 109m @ 8.38m/run and finished with 57.1 percent tackling efficiency coming up against a brutal Broncos right edge that initially had Wynnum homie Robati alongside Kotoni Staggs, then Riki with Staggs.
Pauga didn't fall away from the challenge with Staggs and formed a funky left edge with Ken Maumalo who were at NZ Warriors together. The interesting thing about Pauga is how he got to the Tigers as Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire kinda head-hunted Pauga to make the move during the season and Maguire obviously feels like Pauga can help the Tigers plug a hole at centre moving forward.
While Pauga was always a fun prospect, he wasn't a highly decorated junior and that's in tune with the likes of Robati, Falakiko Manu (Bulldogs) and Edward Kosi (Warriors) who all started to shine with more reps in reserve grade. Tukimihia Simpkins on the other hand falls in the decorated prospect bucket as he was one of the most sought after recruits in either code coming out of Rotorua Boys High School.
North Queensland Cowboys are one of the best recruiters from regional Aotearoa and they linked up with Simpkins early. Simpkins was part of the 2017 National Secondary Schools Team (league) alongside RBHS homies Hayze Perham and Tom Ale, plus Starford To'a (Knights), Christian Tuipulotu (Sea Eagles) and Riki who have all cracked NRL. Caius Fa'atili was also in that team, as was William Fakatoumafi who is playing Redcliffe Dolphins U21s via NZ Warriors and Sione Moala who moved from NZ Warriors to Canberra Raiders for this season.
Like Pauga, Simpkins was not on the Tigers roster to start 2021. Simpkins seems like another Kiwi-NRL prospect who was specifically recruited by Michael Maguire and during the summer, Simpkins sealed a move south to the Tigers. Simpkins played 12 games for Western Suburbs and he played less than 40 minutes in just one of those games, with eight games of 50+ minutes.
Simpkins plays a lot like Tohu Harris and in his first year of NSW Cup, Simpkins averaged 112m/game with 95.8 percent tackling. That's a very Tohu-ish stat wrap and while Pauga was busy dealing with Staggs out on the edge, Simpkins had a tough assignment against Payne Haas through the middle. Simpkins finished with 29 minutes, 4 runs for 31m @ 7.75m/run, 2 offloads, 15 tackles @ 83.3 percent.
Offloading with ease, Simpkins is a classic dual-code forward. In 1st 15 rugby Simpkins was the busy, robust forward, which translates perfectly to middle forward in the NRL where Simpkins does plenty of mahi and as long as he he can continue to build some attacking wrinkles (more offloads, passing, efficient metres) there is a hearty future ahead for Simpkins. Especially in a Tigers outfit that needs such intensity and Simpkins’ style is in alignment with coach Maguire.
Here are the 10 Kiwi-NRL debutants of 2021...
Junior Pauga - Glenora Bears/Kelston Boys High School.
Tukimihia Simpkins - Rotorua Boys High School.
Falakiko Manu - Mangere East Hawks.
Taniela Otukolo - Otahuhu Leopards.
Greg Marzhew - Mangere East Hawks.
TC Robati - Porirua Vikings.
Simi Sasagi - Ellerslie Eagles.
Edward Kosi - Mangere East Hawks.
Rocco Berry - St Pat's Silversteam.
Wiremu Greig - Whangarei Boys High School/Northern Swords.
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