Chris Vea'ila took the tally to 12 Kiwi-NRL debuts in 2025 playing at right centre for Cronulla Sharks in their win vs Sydney Roosters. The Sharks announcement stated that Vea'ila started with Pt Chevalier in Auckland and he must have spent time with Waitemata as well because that's the local rugby league club the appears most linked to Vea'ila, while also coming through Mt Albert Grammar School before moving to Australia.

Initially recruited by Newcastle Knights, Vea'ila started in their Harold Matthews Cup team in 2019 and that appears to have been when he was still at MAGS. He played the first few rounds of SG Ball Cup in 2020 before the pandemic appeared and Vea'ila settled back in Aotearoa before returning to Newcastle to progress through their grades.

The Knights are one of the most active NRL teams in recruiting from Aotearoa and their junior teams are stacked with Kiwi-NRL juniors, especially at the Under 21 level right now. The weird thing is that their best juniors from Aotearoa have departed Knights with Starford To'a (Mt Wellington) moving to Tigers and Simi Sasagi (Ellerslie) moving to Raiders after they excelled in the Knights system.

The most recent example is Sebastian Su'a (Mt Albert) who left Auckland to join Knights and he made a mid-season switch to Dolphins this year. For whatever reason, Knights invest in recruitment from Aotearoa and just as these Kiwi-NRL juniors start to get NRL experience or push for NRL selection, most of the best players depart Knights for different opportunities.

It's the same for Vea'ila who had his first dose of NSW Cup footy in 2021 with Knights and that was crazy because he is only listed as playing SG Ball Cup and NSW Cup that year. He then played two years of U21s with Knights in 2022/23 while also playing six games of NSW Cup that year, then he made a mid-season move to Sharks.

Vea'ila played nine games of U21s with Knights in 2023 and 10 games with Sharks. He also had five games of NSW Cup with Knights and then had one game of reserve grade with Sharks, before playing most of the 2024 season in NSW Cup. Vea'ila did have two games of U21s in 2024 so he had three seasons of Jersey Flegg Cup overlapping with five years of NSW Cup across Knights and Sharks.

Playing 37 games in the last two years with Newtown Jets (Sharks' NSW Cup team), Vea'ila patiently waited for his opportunity as many other emerging Sharks players have also done. In 2024 the Jets won NSW Cup with an all Aotearoa centre combo of Vea'ila and New Plymouth's Mawene Hiroti, then Vea'ila played 16 games of reserve grade before his NRL debut.

On debut Vea'ila scored a try and had 12 runs - 97m @ 8m/run, 1 linebreak assists, 5 tackle breaks and 15 tackles @ 83%. Hiroti and KL Iro were both unavailable, showing the Sharks depth at centre and Vea'ila may get another crack if they are still out of action, otherwise he will be plugging holes in their backline when required.

Like the 11th Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2025 Tevita Naufahu, Vea'ila is most likely to represent Tonga for international rugby league. This goes for Manurewa junior Salesi Foketi and Ellerslie junior Temple Kalepo as well, who also made their debuts this year.

10 of the 12 Kiwi-NRL debuts this year played rugby league in Aoetearoa. Naufahu played 1st 15 rugby union and Moses Leo ( moved to NRL from rugby sevens. Here are all of the Kiwi-NRL debuts in 2025 with their grassroots connections and likely international eligibility...

Salesi Foketi: Manurewa (Tonga)

Bayleigh Bentley-Hape: Moerewa (Fiji/NZ)

Moses Leo: Takapuna (NZ/Samoa)

Sean Mullany: Glenora (NZ)

Tyrone Thompson: Maraenui (NZ)

Tanner Stowers-Smith: Halswell (NZ/Samoa)

Benaiah Ioelu: Otara (Samoa/NZ)

Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana: Mangere East (Samoa)

Aublix Tawha: Turangawaewae (NZ)

Temple Kalepo: Ellerslie (Tonga)

Tevita Naufahu: St Kents College (Tonga)

Chris Vea'ila: Waitemata (Tonga)

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