Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Ka Pai Kelston With Raymond Tuaimalo-Vaega
Manly Sea Eagles have graced two Auckland wingers with Kiwi-NRL debuts this season as Marist Saints junior Raymond Tuaimalo-Vaega grabbed his first NRL game in a hefty loss to Raiders. Otahuhu's Alfred Smalley made his debut a few weeks ago and these two lads were thrown into a niggly Sea Eagles environment which is also evident in their NSW Cup team being last (2-20) where Smalley and Tuaimalo-Vaega have spent most of this year.
Compare that to Cook Islands international Kayal Iro who made his debut for Sharks after a strong season with Newtown Jets who are first in NSW Cup (16-2-4) for two organisations with vastly different vibes. Tuiamalo-Vaega, Smalley and Iro all played for NZ Warriors Jersey Flegg at some point; Tuaimalo-Vaega and Iro played together for Warriors Under 20s in 2019, starting some games together as the centre combo.
Tuaimalo-Vaega played 68 minutes vs Raiders with 13 runs for 131m @ 10.07m/run and it's hard to take any insights away from his debut as there is only so much a winger can offer in a struggling team. Tuaimalo-Vaega's powerful running stands out as his main weapon and while he predominantly played as a winger for Kelston Boys High School 1st 15/13, there appears to be a phase where Tuaimalo-Vaega played #8 for KBHS 1st 15 as a mark of his robust running.
That resulted in Tuaimalo-Vaega cracking an Auckland Blues U18 camp in 2018 as a forward alongside Eliesa Katoa, Niko Jones, Zarn Sullivan and Christian Tuipulotu. The funk gets amplified as Tuaimalo-Vaega and Tuipulotu were Sea Eagles' starting wingers in the loss to Raiders, after rising through Auckland union and league.
Next week sees the return of NZRL's National Secondary Schools Tournament after a hefty absence. The pandemic obviously impact this tournament but the absence stretches back to a measles outbreak in 2019 that rubbed that year out, leaving KBHS as the last national champions. Tuaimalo-Vaega was part of that team, scoring a try in the final against a St Paul's College team featuring Tuipulotu, Sione Moala (Raiders) and Sea Eagles Jersey Flegg centre Jonah Palota-Kopa.
After his stint with Warriors, Tuaimalo-Vaega shifted to Northern Pride in Queensland's Hastings Deering Colts competition where he scored a try in their only game before the pandemic. A fun wrinkle of Smalley's debut was his journey back to domestic footy during the pandemic and Tuaimalo-Vaega also returned to Aotearoa, making the Aotearoa Residents team via Akarana and Marist.
Then came a full time move to Sea Eagles where Tuaimalo-Vaega played Jersey Flegg last season and stepped up to NSW Cup this year. Sea Eagles have plenty of depth in their outside backs an there is a lovely Kiwi-NRL flavour through this depth with Tuaimalo-Vaega, Tuipulotu, Smalley and Morgan Harper joined by Palota-Kopa and Sanele Aukusitino (St Patrick's Silverstream - Wellington) in Sea Eagles Flegg.
Sea Eagles could settle with this group or make changes over the next few months ahead of summer training. Something is wonky at Sea Eagles as they are 11th in NRL and 0-5 in recent games, also 12th (last) in NSW Cup and 10th in Jersey Flegg (9-13). This will probably lead to changes within the Sea Eagles set up and how things shake out for Tuaimalo-Vaega and the others will be an intriguing Kiwi-NRL wrinkle to track.
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