The performance of Starford To'a in a hefty Tigers win over Cowboys may have surprised some folks, while others saluted one of the most dominant Aotearoa juniors in recent years. Tigers sizzled throughout their 66-18 win against a stinky Cowboys team as the battle between To'a and Valentine Holmes reflected the overall result.

To’a vs Cowboys: 2 tries, 14 runs - 223m @ 15.9m/run, 5 linebreaks, 12 tackle busts, 1 offload, 14 tackles @ 74%

This season started with a similar vibe to To'a previous seasons as he was 18th-lad in two of the first four games. To'a played fullback, wing and centre last year in a niggly phase for Tigers. Prior to his shift to Tigers, To'a played all his footy with Knights on the wing. To'a has clearly found a groove as a starting centre, rolling out the best performance of his career in his seventh consecutive start.

223m appears to be a career-best mark for To'a and this was his second game in a row with 200+ metres. In last round's loss to Rabbitohs, the Mt Wellington junior had 24 runs - 203m @ 8.4m/run. To'a had the most run metres of all Tigers in that loss and the consistency of his role is having a notable impact on To'a's footy.

Tigers have won three of their last four games. To'a has five tries in his last seven starts, with two try assists, six offloads and 34 tackles busts. That's boosted by 12 tackle busts vs Cowboys but To'a has two other games with at least six tackle busts in this stretch of seven starts. All of which is evident in how To'a has improved from last season (per game)...

2022: 1.7 missed tackles | 0.8 errors | 2.9 tackle busts | 109m
2023: 1.4 missed tackles | 0.2 errors | 4.2 tackle busts | 134m

Holmes averages 2.2 missed tackles and 1.1 errors per game this season. To’a flexed all over Holmes but he has been churning out impressive mahi all season. To'a scored six tries in 2021 with eight linebreaks in each of the last two years as career-best marks. This season, To'a already has five tries and seven linebreaks.

As a member of a fabulous St Paul's College league team and a decorated NZRL junior representative, To'a earned an opportunity with Knights. To'a basically made every NZRL rep team and did plenty of winning, yet the funkiest nugget to best describe his talents is that he made the 2017 National Secondary Schools Tournament Team in Aotearoa and then featured in the 2018 Australian Schoolboys team after moving to Newcastle.

The most recent examples of Kiwi-NRL juniors playing for Australian Schoolboys are Deine Mariner (Marist) in 2021 and Keano Kini (Northcote) in 2022. It seems as though the only players from those two teams who have already played NRL are from Aotearoa; Randwick junior Karl Oloapu joins Mariner and Kini.

This pedigree ensures that To'a is well equipped to offer skill at the centre position as well as dynamic running. Most of his representative honours came with To'a playing fullback and he has natural instincts to shuffle the ball to his winger when in space, pouncing on intuitive opportunities as well as providing kicks or offloads when required. To'a isn't just a runner, he has more than enough skill to shine as an NRL centre.

Aotearoa Kiwis are building a strong crop of centres and To'a sits alongside Otahuhu junior Matthew Timoko as the best young centres available. Hopefully Kiwis coach Michael Maguire still loves his the Kiwi-NRL Tigers as To'a could form a centre pairing with Timoko if the stars align this year. Reimis Smith, Peta Hiku and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad are other contenders.

To'a is also eligible for Tonga, who finished last year's World Cup with Will Penisini and Mosese Suli as their centres. Siosifa Talakai and Konrad Hurrell also played centre for Tonga during the World Cup.

The best mark of Kiwi-NRL juniors is how they shift from Aotearoa to Australia. To'a was a top notch junior in Aotearoa who quickly impacted footy in Australia before settling into the NRL grind. While he did his job in sporadic opportunities, To'a is now playing his best footy after being a consistent role. Given the potential he has shown throughout his junior footy, To'a probably won't be resting on his glorious performance vs Cowboys either.

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Peace and love.