Tevita Naufahu was the 11th Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2025 when he played on the wing for Dolphins vs Sharks and he's backed it up with another appearance in the win vs Cowboys. The swift rise of Naufahu at Dolphins reflects how Dolphins recruited a bunch of Kiwi-NRL juniors from Aotearoa as they entered NRL and the crazy talent of Naufahu.

Naufahu played 1st 15 rugby for St Kents College in Auckland and appears to come from Glen Innes. There isn’t any clear connection to a rugby union club at the grassroots level but Naufahu was a dominant force in 1st 15 rugby and was part of the New Zealand Schools team in 2023. Also in this team was Caelys Putoko who is now in the NZ Warriors system and the Blues Under 18 squad in 2023 highlights the crossover between codes as Naufahu was joined by two others who would enter NRL systems in Roy Tatupu (Bulldogs) and Alvin Chong Nee (NZW)

Naufahu followed the path of John Fineanganofo (Auckland Grammar) and Elijah Rasmussen (Westlake Boys High School) who joined Dolphins ahead of the 2023 season. All three have been playing for Central Queensland in Queensland Cup this year under the Dolphins umbrella, with Fineanganofo (hooker/utility) and Rasmussen (middle) sitting in roles where Dolphins have plenty of depth.

Having played Under 19 Mal Meninga Cup with Redcliffe in 2024, Naufahu settled into reserve grade with nine games for CQ. Six of them were as a starting winger, two and centre and then a game at fullback, plus he had one game at centre for Dolphins in the NRLQ U20 competition.

Less than two years after being one of the best players for NZ Schools in rugby union, Naufahu scored eight tries in nine games for CQ and averaged 135m/game. Naufahu put up at least six tackle breaks in five games of Queensland Cup this year and this flowed into his NRL debut where he had one linebreak and four tackle breaks.

vs Sharks: 18 runs - 176m @ 9.7m/run, 1 linebreak, 4 tackle breaks, 2 tackles @ 40%
vs Cowboys: 13 runs - 93m @ 7.1m/run, 1 tackle break, 6 tackles @ 85.7%

Of the 11 Kiwi-NRL debuts this year, Naufahu is joined by Moses Leo and Tryone Thompson in not playing rugby league in Aotearoa. Leo was playing NZ Sevens and Thompson was playing Super Rugby, so Naufahu is the only debutant this year who went from 1st 15 rugby union into an NRL system.

It's highly likely that Naufahu plays for Tonga in international rugby league. He has already been part of the thriving Hakula Tonga pipeline in Auckland and the Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf is also Tonga's coach. Three of the 11 Kiwi-NRL juniors to debut this year will probably boost Tonga's debut as Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) and Temple Kalepo (Ellerslie) have already been heavily involved in Tongan rugby league.

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