Updated New Zealand Warriors Youngster Report With An Easter Sunday Glow
The delightful win for New Zealand Warriors vs Brisbane Broncos featured important contributions from the young wave of NRL Warriors and it capped off a Saturday in which the Jersey Flegg Cup and NSW Cup teams won with lots of emerging talent on display. After the annual loss to Storm in Melbourne, NZW needed to bounce back and in a tricky encounter against Broncos they sustained heavy defence and consistent efforts to pounce on an opportunity.
Luke Metcalf smacked a 50m penalty over for the win while others like Mitchell Barnett, Jackson Ford, Wayde Egan and Kurt Capewell played admirable leadership roles in the win. Aside from Metcalf's Aussie mana in hitting the winning penalty after a few mishaps that kept Broncos in the contest, a special highlight needs to be made for Barnett who mentioned the tribute to Sonny Fai on the Pasifika jersey in the post game press conference.
Capewell plugged a hole at centre and after four impressive outings coming off the bench, Ford slid back into a starting role and was one of the best players for NZW in the win. Ford's 66 minutes vs Broncos was a season high and he has played 60+ minutes as a bench forward twice this season. Capewell has now played 80mins in five consecutive games and Egan dipped below 80mins for the first time this season.
Egan played 67mins before being replaced by Te Maire Martin who stepped into the halves and Chanel Harris-Tavita covered the dummy half duties. Egan came back on to the field and replaced Ford though, which meant that NZW finished the game with Egan, Harris-Tavita, Metcalf and Martin on the field together.
This is a fresh wrinkle in the 2025 season and carrying these four in the same squad provides ample options to cover different scenarios. Meanwhile, Samuel Healey has been in dominant form in NSW Cup and he can't be far away from getting an NRL debut as dummy half cover.
NZW didn't just have their four play-makers on the field at the end of the game, they also had the full crew of youngsters playing in key moments. Along with Ali Leiataua who churned out another solid full game at centre, Leka Halasima, Demitric Vaimauga and Jacob Laban were all on the field for the last 10 minutes.
Laban first came on in the 56th minute to replace Halasima, then Halasima came back on in place of Marata Niukore and Vaimauga returned to replace Erin Clark. Vaimauga finished in the middle with Barnett and Harris-Tavita, while the two edge forwards in the most important phase of the game were Halasima and Laban.
Laban played 27mins in his first game of the season. Vaimauga played 30+ minutes for the second week in a row and he has flipped from less than 20mins in the first three games to 25+ minutes in the next three. Halasima's game time was boosted by starting the game and he finished with 69mins, his first game over 40 minutes this season. Don't overlook Leiataua though because he has quietly gathered the best winning percentage of these four youngsters (62%) after his 13 games.
Lots more details like Clark's exceptional mahi, NZW recruitment, crowd sizes at Mt Smart and the regular dose of Kiwi-NRL notes will be covered in our newsletter on Monday so sign up for that. If you enjoy these Warriors deep dives then please consider joining the Patreon whanau to fund our mahi or you can donate through Buy Me A Coffee.
The major theme on this Easter Sunday though is how NZW won three games with immense contributions from the young core they are developing through the grades. NZW had a big win over Dragons in NSW Cup and are now 5-1 this season, the third season in a row where the reserve grade team has been a top-four team with a winning record and a squad full of youngsters.
Setu Tu was a surprise inclusion on the wing after playing one game for Brisbane Tigers in Queensland Cup. This continues the theme of players popping up out of nowhere in the NZW system and that's another wrinkle that will be covered in the Monday newsletter. The presence of Tu added another older player to the NSW Cup team and he is only 26-years-old, as is Morgan Harper while the oldest players in the NSW Cup team are Geronimo Doyle and Kalani Going who are 28-years-old.
Not every player has their age listed so it's best broken up by (relatively) older players and younger players, a line that hovers around 25-years-old. The majority of the NSW Cup team who defeated Dragons 40-12 fall into the younger bracket with Tanah Boyd and Freddy Lussick under the line at 24-years-old.
Youngers who played vs Dragons: Daeon Amituanai, Moala Graham-Taufa, Luke Hanson, Tanah Boyd, Harry Durbin, Samuel Healey, Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea, Kayliss Fatialofa, Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, Jason Salalilo, Toby Crosby, Harry Durbin, Makaia Tafua.
This was boosted by the late inclusions of starting props Durbin and Tuipulotu-Vea, as well as Tafua who covered hooker on the bench. All three have been playing Under 21 Jersey Flegg this season and they joined Christchurch forward Salalilo who elevated from Flegg to NSW Cup in recent weeks. All four of these lads played 30+ minutes in the win vs Dragons.
The NSW Cup team could have been even younger if Jett Cleary stayed in the halves where he was initially named, but Boyd dropped down from the NRL mix to play NSW Cup. The U21 team had their second win of the season, defeating Dragons 36-30 and there were a bunch of lads stepping up from U19s for this game.
SG Ball Cup lads who played Jersey Flegg Cup vs Dragons: Compton Purcell, Ezekiel Davidson-Faaiuaso, Tepatasi Laumalili, Paea Sikuvea, Emosi Ravosai, Kahu Capper.
Gordon Afoa and Noah Jensen are U19s who were part of the initial squad named but didn't play vs Dragons with all the shuffling of players across the grades. Afoa has already played one game and he has played U17s, U19s and U21s in just under one and a half years.
There are a bunch of Jersey Flegg Cup players who have already stepped up to NSW Cup or are capable of doing that this season if required. Jacob Auloa, Presley Seumanu-Tigafua, Etuate Fukofuka, and Cleary have already played NSW Cup. Players who could possibly step up to reserve grade are Caelys Putoko, Jarome Falemoe, Jackson Kite and Alvin Chong Nee.
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Peace and love.