Much like Taine Tuaupiki's growth in NSW Cup ahead of his performance vs Panthers, Paul Roache was quietly building for New Zealand Warriors in reserve grade leading into his classy effort at Magic Round. Coming on for Wayde Egan after 12 minutes, Roache played 68 minutes at hooker and churned out 37 tackles @ 92.5% with most of those tackles featuring Roache's shoulders driving the opponent back.

Roache didn't scoot out of dummy half often and only ran from the ruck once for 9m, finishing with 3 runs - 20m @ 6.6m/run. Panthers were graced with plenty of time to lay all over the NZW ruck and this was evident in NZW finishing with 3.58 seconds per play the ball vs 3.01sec for Panthers, which didn't allow Roache many opportunites to burst out of dummy half.

Taine Tuaupiki has been building in NSW Cup and along with Te Maire Martin, he stepped up for a Taharoa takeover vs Panthers#UpTheWahs #KiwiNRL https://t.co/dhYZeT9uzs
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) May 20, 2024

NZW didn't need that though and despite a clear disadvantage in the ruck speed, NZW still jacked up 22 points against the champions. Roache played a simple role with the footy as he sent crisp passes left and right, providing the play-makers with the ball they needed to get busy.

Roache has been slowly brewing towards NRL footy and made his debut late last season for NZW. When Raiders signed Roache out of Mt Albert Grammar School, he was a decorated 1st 15 player and while he soon returned home to Aotearoa, Roache kept battling with stints for Ponsonby in rugby union and Richmond in rugby league. Then Roache settled with the NZW NSW Cup team where he played a key role in one of the best reserve grade teams of last season.

Spending most of last season at hooker, Roache has played in the halves for a few games this season. NZW have a young NSW Cup group full of Under 21 lads and a few of the senior lads like Ben Farr, Geronimo Doyle and Roache getting game time in the halves, as well as Luke Hanson being promoted from Jersey Flegg. Roache played 60+ minutes at hooker in the first four games and then played three of the next four games in the halves, with 100+ kicking metres in those three games at halfback.

Like Tuaupiki, Roache has developed skills in NSW Cup and this is an important theme for all NZW players as there is genuine development happening at all levels. Roache averaged 11.35 kicking metres per game last season which increased to 67.98 this year, as well as adding 10m to his average run metres per game (43m/game to 53m/game).

Roache has stayed above 90% tackling in his three seasons of NSW Cup which includes two games for Mounties back in 2018. Roache is a willing defender and any defensive niggle in NSW Cup was partly due to the different defensive role with Roache shifting between the middle where he has big bodies around him and the edge where there is more space and more decisions to be made.

Against Panthers, Roache defended in the middle to make his mahi slightly easier ... until all those powerful Panthers were running at him. Roache thrived in this defensive zone to finish with the most tackles of all NZW players against Panthers.

Interestingly, NZW have an exciting crop of dummy halves in NSW Cup with Makaia Tafua (U21s) and Jacob Auloa (U19s) getting lots of game time when Roache is in the halves or playing NRL. As seen with Roache and many NZW youngsters, there is no rush in their development process. Roache is third in the dummy half depth chart and the stars may align for lots of opportunities in the coming weeks, again highlighting how important depth is through a long NRL season.

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