Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Valynce 'The House' Te Whare

In his second season of rugby league, Valynce 'The House' Te Whare made his Kiwi-NRL debut for Dolphins vs Sharks. This was a tricky encounter for Te Whare as he was named at right centre where Sharks have Siosifa Talakai and while Sharks would have had all sorts of plans to target Te Whare, a 30-0 lead for Dolphins ensured that wasn't an issue.

Te Whare scored two tries in typically robust fashion and finished with 10 runs - 91m @ 9.1m/run, 5 tackle busts, 20 tackles @ 77%. Te Whare's development will be guided by Manurewa's Bromwich brothers, Felise Kaufusi and coach Wayne Bennett who will keep a lid on any hype. Here's how Te Whare's two seasons with Redcliffe in Queensland Cup have panned out since leaving Aotearoa...

  • 2022: 14 games, 12 tries, 12.14 touches/game, 1.2 linebreaks/game, 85.89% tackling, 147m/game

  • 2023: 6 games, 4 tries, 11 touches/game, 1.1 linebreaks/game, 81.9% tackling, 124m/game

This follows the same trajectory of Will Warbrick who left Aotearoa Sevens rugby to join Storm where he was stashed in Queensland Cup for a year. Warbrick started round one for Storm and Te Whare pounced on his opportunity with Brenko Lee unavailable due to injury. Te Whare's debut is unlikely to flow into a consistent starting gig and how he handles the yo-yo between NRL and Queensland Cup will be informative.

Te Whare appears to come from Otara via Tangaroa College before moving to St Paul's Collegiate in Waikato. This throws up a hefty Tangaroa College link with Connelly Lemuelu leading the TC wave. Te Whare attended an NZR Schools Development Camp in 2018 alongside Rocco Berry (NZ Warriors) and a bunch of lads now playing Super Rugby. Te Whare progressed to play for Waikato via Fraser Tech and then King Country before being recruited to join Dolphins via Redcliffe.

With recruitment/scouting wizard Peter O'Sullivan leading the Dolphins junior pipeline, this delivers a bunch of funky Kiwi-NRL angles to Dolphins footy. Australia's coverage of Dolphins recruitment was rather negative as they didn't snare the cool, trendy signings that whip up headlines. Meanwhile, Aotearoa legends Jesse and Kenny Bromwich led a group of Kiwi-NRL lads recruited to the first Dolphins squad.

The team that defeated Sharks featured nine of 17 lads from Aotearoa; Jamayne Isaako, Valynce Te Whare, Kodi Nikorima, Isaiya Katoa, Jeremy Marshall-King, Kenny Bromwich, Connelly Lemuelu, Poasa Fa’amausili, Herman Ese’ese.

Jesse Bromwich wasn't playing and his spot was taken by Fa'amausili, making it unlikely that all 10 Kiwi-NRL Dolphins will play in the same team. That could happen though and this would be a glorious representation of Aotearoa rugby league.

Below NRL, Dolphins have been busy recruiting juniors from Aotearoa. Sebastyan Jack (Marist) has started at fullback with Taniela Otukolo (Otahuhu) at hooker in the Redcliffe Hastings Deering Colts (U21) team. Jack and Otukolo played for Warriors-Redcliffe during the pandemic, before staying on with Redcliffe as Warriors returned to Aotearoa.

The real Kiwi-NRL funk sits with Redcliffe's Mal Meninga Cup (U18) team that won the MMC championship. While the headlines in NZ focus on Te Whare being a product of Waikato rugby, John Fineanganofo was one of the best players in MMC coming out of Auckland Grammar 1st 15. Fineanganofo started the MMC season on Redcliffe's bench and finished in the halves, scoring three tries in the semi-final, a try in the final and kicking goals.

Fineanganofo is now playing centre for Redcliffe's U21s team. Last year Elijah Rasmussen was in the Blues U18 Development squad via Westlake Boys High School 1st 15 and he progressed from bench forward to starting prop in the MMC final for Redcliffe. Rasmussen has also moved up to Redcliffe U21s as a bench forward.

Patrick Kailahi and Layton Hillman-Hohua missed out on MMC finals footy but played most of Redcliffe's MMC season. Kailahi was recruited from Hamilton Boys High School 1st 15 and appears to hail from Northland via Takahiwai, starting at edge forward for Redcliffe U18s.

Hillman-Hohua comes from Whakatane/Upper Hutt where he attended Heretaunga College and played for Awa Rugby League before joining Roosters U17s. Late last year Hillman-Hohua signed with Dolphins and he played a few games for Redcliffe U18s, coming off the bench alongside Fineanganofo and Rasmussen in one game.

NRL expansion means more opportunities for Kiwi-NRL juniors and there is an abundance of footy talent in Aotearoa. Most of the Kiwi-NRL Redcliffe juniors played 1st 15 rugby and O'Sullivan has a proven record of recruiting 1st 15 talent for NRL pipelines. Te Whare is the easiest example right now, but there is a hefty wave of youngsters from Aotearoa already rising through the Redcliffe pipeline ready to enter the Dolphins pool.

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