Who was 18th lad when Aotearoa Kiwis smashed Australia 30-0 last year? Naufahu Whyte. The young Roosters forward has followed his selection in the Aotearoa squad with the best phase of his craeer since debuting in 2021 and his development makes him the best youngster from Aotearoa in the Roosters system.

Whyte is a Bay Roskill junior who was recruited by Roosters while at Kelston Boys High School. Like most Kiwi-NRL juniors, Whyte was a consistent figure in the KBHS 1st 15 as he balanced league and union. Most of his journey has been covered in previous Kiwi-NRL Spotlights and as all the Aussies were frothing about State of Origin selection, 22-year-old Whyte played 68 minutes as a middle forward for Roosters in their big win over Raiders.

Every Whyte run seemed to involve speed, footwork and power around the ruck which is evident in his 12 runs - 122m @ 10.1m/run with nine tackle breaks. Add in an offload that led to a try and a sneaky dummy half run for 10m, as well as 33 tackles @ 91.6% for a comprehensive display of Whyte's ability.

Whyte has now played 10 games this season, which is more than his eight games last season and three games in 2021. He scored his first try in round five this season, after registering his first linebreak in round two and he now has eight offloads which is a hefty increase on his three offloads last season. Whyte has at least one offload in seven of his 10 games this season, with one offload in four consecutive games.

There is also an increase in Whyte's tackle busting to make Whyte's mahi is more impactful this season. He is playing less minutes and averaging less metres per game, yet Whyte is providing more funk to the Roosters middle forward rotation...

2023 things per game...

35mins, 1.5 tackle breaks, 0.4 offloads, 89.6m

2024 things per game...

32.2min, 2.9 tackle breaks, 0.8 offloads, 73m

Naufahu Whyte (Bay Roskill) try for Roosters in NSW Cup#KiwiNRL pic.twitter.com/z9c0zbBMyv
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) August 27, 2023

Whyte's tackling stats reflect a dip in minutes with less tackles made and fewer missed tackles. Having entered the NRL tackling at 93.9% efficiency, Whyte is now sitting at 94% for the second season in a row.

What is tricky here is how coach Trent Robinson selects his forward pack. Whyte played nine consecutive games coming off the bench and has started his last two games, although he missed rounds 10 and 11 in between those starts. Whyte was a late omission from the round 10 team and he wasn't named for round 11, which may have been due to injury but Whyte wasn't mentioned in any of the Roosters medical wraps.

Coach Robinson is chopping and changing players for different roles week to week, which may point to him rotating his roster to keep everyone fresh. After playing nine consecutive games, perhaps Whyte was given a small break or he had minor injuries. Whyte's 68 minutes vs Raiders was his first game playing over 37mins this season and the youngster from Auckland shined with arguably the best game of his NRL career.

Part of the intrigue here is the Kiwi-NRL angle for Roosters. Joseph Manu (Tokoroa) is leaving for a stint in rugby union. Sitili Tupouniua (Marist) played the first five games as starting edge forward and then got 2mins and 19mins in appearances off the bench in round six and round nine. Tupouniua has only played one game in NSW Cup (round 10) and regardless of how little we know about his status, Tupouniua has gone from 15+ games in four consecutive years to eight games last year and seven games so far this season.

Siua Wong also has a confusing journey this season, after the Burnham/Manurewa junior appeared to break through last season. Wong played the first two games of the season as a starting edge forward and then he had a two games coming off the bench in rounds eight and nine. Wong has played six NSW Cup games this season for six losses.

There is also a trend of Kiwi-NRL juniors departing Roosters. Benaiau Ioelu (Tangaroa College) and Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) are the best Kiwi-NRL juniors on the rise for Roosters. Meanwhile, Cassius Tia (Marist) left Roosters to join Bulldogs and Javahn Stevenson-Hala (Palmerston North) left Roosters to join Eels.

Tavita Henare-Schuster (Kia Toa/Takahiwai) had plenty of buzz when he joined Roosters for last season. He moved to Burleigh in Queensland Cup for this season and hasn't done much since appearing in the first three games. A few weeks ago NZ Warriors announced the signing of Kahu Capper (Taranaki) which was specifically framed as 'Young Kiwi signed from Roosters'. Capper was the latest Kiwi-NRL junior who Roosters had set up for school/footy in Sydney and now Capper is back in Aotearoa.

All of which serves as confusion about the quality of the Roosters Kiwi-NRL pipeline. There is no confusion about Whyte though and he should be graced with consistent game time over the State of Origin period, while also pushing to make an Aotearoa Kiwis debut sometime soon.

Enjoy our Kiwi-NRL coverage? Please consider supporting the Niche Cache through Patreon or with a paid Substack subscription. We drop Kiwi-NRL notes each week in our Subscriber Podcast which is only available on Patreon and Substack.

Or you can make a donation through Buy Me A Coffee.

Our Monday/Friday newsletter always has Kiwi-NRL notes too.

Peace and love.