There continues to be a flood of NRLWahine moving from Aotearoa and into NRLW with Tongan international Lavinia Tauhalaliku making her debut for North Queensland Cowboys in their loss to Brisbane Broncos. Manly Sea Eagles aren't in NRLW but they had a bunch of young women from Aotearoa in their NSW Women's Premiership team where Tauhalaliku was churning out dominant mahi before she was suddenly named on the extended bench for Cowboys in NRLW.

Kiwi Ferns coach Ricky Henry is also the Cowboys coach and he would have known all about Tauhalaliku from her time playing rugby league in Aotearoa. Broncos were too slick for Cowboys but Tauhalaliku looked comfortable in her NRLW debut as she played the whole game on the wing with 13 runs - 151m @ 11.6m/run, 3 tackle breaks and 3 tackles @ 100%.

There are so many fun wrinkles to explore in the rise of Tauhalaliku. The first is the quality of rugby league wahine from Aotearoa as others like Annessa Biddle (Sharks - Otara), Mackenzie Wiki (Raiders - Manurewa), Alexis Tauaneai (Dragons - Wainuiomata) and Abigail Roache (Knights - Richmond) have all at least looked comfy/dominated NRLW footy coming from Aotearoa.

This is most evident in Mele Hufanga though who dominated for Kiwi Ferns at the Rugby League World Cup in 2022 before she even started playing NRLW. Since then Hufanga has continued to roll over NRLW opponents having combined both codes in Aotearoa coming out of Southern Cross Campus in Mangere, the same school that Tauhalaliku went to.

Not only did Hufagana and Tauhalaliku shine in both codes coming out of Southern Cross Campus, they played against each other in Tauhalaliku's debut. That cross-code excellence saw Hufanga shine with Auckland Blues in Super Rugby Aupiki before the RLWC and Tauhalaliku played for Counties Manukau in the Farah Palmer Cup, as well as stints playing rugby union in the Auckland Premier Women’s competition.

All of that happened while Tauhalaliku won the Auckland Rugby League Women's Player of the Year award in 2023 with Auckland City. Then came the wave of Aotearoa wahine playing for Sea Eagles in the NSW Women's Premiership where Tauhalaliku was joined by the likes of Mollie Tagaloa (Te Atatu), Aleksandra Tunufai (Howick), Makayla Eli (Manurewa), Tanika-Jazz Noble (Mt Albert), Alianna Tonu'u (Otara) and JayJay Taylor (Kaitaia).

Sea Eagles announced a partnership with Mangere East Hawks earlier this year and that may have linked Tauhalaliku who is a Mangere East junior to Sea Eagles. Sea Eagles have lots of wahine from around Auckland primarily though and there were a few yarns about Sea Eagles forming a connection with Auckland Rugby League which may be more relevant here. Sea Eagles also have a sneaky link with the Gold Coast Titans NRLW team which has seen Manurewa junior Ngatokotoru Arakua play for Sea Eagles in NSW Women's Premiership when she isn't in the Titans NRLW team.

Tauhalaliku will be chasing more game time with Cowboys in NRLW and they currently seventh (of 10 teams) with a 3-3 record. The speed, balance and size that made Tauhalaliku a dominant force in her first season of rugby league in Australia was swiftly on display in her NRLW debut, plus she can cover all outside back positions. Not only does this reinforce the fabulous quality of NRLWahine from Aotearoa, it puts a spotlight on Southern Cross Campus who have Hufanga, Tauhalaliku, Leka Halasima (NZ Warriors), Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana and Jarome Falemoe (Knights) on the rise.

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