Otara's Benaiah Ioelu became the seventh Kiwi-NRL debut of 2025 as he started at hooker for Sydney Roosters in their win vs Cronulla Sharks. Ioelu played the first 24 minutes for Roosters and finished with 40mins as he shared the dummy half duties with another Kiwi-NRL hooker in Zach Dockar-Clay (Bell Block) where his slick craft was on display.

Ioelu vs Sharks: 40mins, 4 runs - 28m @ 7m/run, 1 linebreak assist, 1 tackle break, 2 offloads, 19 tackles @ 86.3%

This snap sums up Ioelu's mahi nicely as he draws in defenders by bouncing either side of the ruck and finds a comrade to hit the hole created by his craft…

Ioelu has shown such potential for a few years now as he made his way through Howick, Mt Albert and Ellerslie rugby league clubs and flashed his ability for the NZ Warriors Under 16s team back in 2019 playing alongside Ali Leiataua (NZW), Jacob Laban (NZW), Francis Manuleleua (Knights), Salesi Ataata (Rabbitohs) and Zyon Maiu'u (Bulldogs).

Ioelu's mana is most evident in his years at Tangaroa College though where he was instrumental in an impressive 1st 15 team. While he moved around for the best rugby league opportunities, Ioelu stayed at Tangaroa College for all his schooling and maintained an effort to represent Tangaroa College as Roosters came calling.

Since 2020 Ioelu has been in the Roosters system and he has spent two years in each of Harold Matthews Cup, SG Ball Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup. Ioelu played three games of U21s in 2022 which was also his first year of U19s, then in 2023 he made his NSW Cup debut after playing the full season of U19s.

Ioelu played 10 games of NSW Cup last year and built towards his NRL debut by playing 63mins, 61mins and 57mins in his last three reserve grade games this season. Here's his three seasons of NSW Cup...

2023: 1 game, 45m/game, 92.3% tackling
2024: 10 games, 4 tries, 2 try assists, 3 offloads, 36m/game, 91.7% tackling, 33.2 kick metres/game
2025: 4 games, 1 try assist, 2 offloads, 26m/game, 93% tackling, 22.3 kick metres/game

Ioelu made his debut alongside another 2025 Kiwi-NRL debutant in Salesi Foketi (Manurewa), Naufahu Whyte (Bay Roskill) and Siua Wong (Burnham/Manurewa), all of whom are fabulous examples of Roosters recruitment from Aotearoa and their development system. There was also a dose of New Plymouth funk in this win over Sharks as Dockar-Clay was joined by another Bell Block junior in Makahesi Makatoa.

It's highly likely that Ioelu opts to represent Samoa where he can be their longterm dummy half. Ioelu is obviously eligible for Aotearoa as well, yet there are more opportunities on offer with Samoa and Ioelu has already represented Samoa in the thriving junior cultural pathways available in Aotearoa.

The departure of Brandon Smith to Rabbitohs leaves Connor Watson, Dockar-Clay and Ioelu as the three best dummy halves in the Roosters squad. This should ensure that Ioelu has plenty of opportunities to add to his NRL debut and there is a funky example to follow as Foketi has played eight games in his first season with 40+ minutes in four of those games.

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Peace and love.