Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Sebastian Su'a Debut For Newcastle Knights
Sebastian Su'a made his NRL debut with Newcastle Knights in their win over Rabbitohs as the 18th man and almost spent more time in the sin bin than he did playing footy. Coming on the field in the 60th minute, Su'a played 12 minutes with 2 runs - 21m @ 10.5m/run, 8 tackles @ 72.7% before a high shot sent him to the sin bin and yet he still showed the presence that has seen him quickly progress through rugby league.
In 2021, Su'a was playing rugby union at King's College while also dabbling in rugby league with Kotahitanga. Su'a then appeared in the NZ Warriors Sevens rugby team early in 2022 and also played for Akarana in the NZRL Under 20s competition before earning a spot with Mt Albert in Auckland's Fox Memorial competition. Su'a was playing men's footy in Auckland as a young big bopper and this boosted the transition to Newcastle where he started with the Under 21 Jersey Flegg Knights in 2023.
Not only was Su'a playing against grown blokes in Auckland, he followed that up with 13 Jersey Flegg games and 10 NSW Cup games last year. At 20-years-old, Su'a is still eligible for Jersey Flegg and he has played one game at that level this year but has rolled through consistent NSW Cup footy. Su'a has played 19 games in NSW Cup this season with 16 of them at starting prop and three coming off the bench.
In his first 10 games of NSW Cup this year, Su'a played less than 50 minutes. In the next nine games prior to his debut, Su'a churned out 50+ minutes in four games and three of them have been in his last four outings. These last four games also include a 49-minute effort and he offered his best mahi in his most recent game which was a win over Eels: 53mins, 1 try, 16 runs - 163m @ 10.1m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 2 offloads, 25 tackles @ 83%.
This is part of a clear development bump for Su'a in NSW Cup over the last two seasons and all of this came while he was still in the Jersey Flegg mix…
2023: 10 games, 1 try, 12 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 45m/game, 95.6% tackling
2024: 19 games, 2 tries, 28 tackle breaks, 14 offloads, 85m/game, 92.1% tackling
Su'a had a taste of NRL footy in a pre-season trial against Sharks where his 14 runs were the most of the Knights players and his 118m were second to fullback Fletcher Sharpe. Su'a now has strong foundations in rugby league as he has consistently played up age grades in these three years as a forward. Now Su'a has quickly gathered 29 games of NSW Cup experience and with a decent summer training period, Su'a could command a spot in the top-17 for Knights to start next season.
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