Eddie Ieremia-Toeava made his NRL debut for NZ Warriors in the loss to Dolphins and he is the 13th Kiwi-NRL junior to debut this season. The Otahuhu junior and De La Salle College product played 24 minutes off the bench with 7 runs - 56m @ 8m/run, 1 offload and 20 tackles @ 95.2% in a tidy performance as a middle forward.

This debut has been forecasted throughout the season with Ieremia-Toeava being 18th-lad in five games prior to his debut, including the first two rounds. Versatility is a strength of the NZW squad and Ieremia-Toeava's ability to play both edge and middle forward would have boosted his fringe NRL stocks, but he was strictly a middle forward on debut and looked comfortable doing this job at the NRL level.

The 20-year-old has not played Jersey Flegg Cup (U21) and he quietly stacked up 43 games of NSW Cup experience since his first game of reserve grade in 2023. Ieremia-Toeava has a winning record of 65% in NSW Cup and he has started games at centre, edge forward, middle forward and on the bench.

This season he played all 14 games as an edge forward in NSW Cup and played 80 minutes in all but two of those games, with 76 and 74 minutes in the other two appearances. Despite being one of the youngest players in the NSW Cup team, Ieremia-Toeava has churned out plenty of mahi which is on show in his game time as well as averaging 37.5 tackles per game in reserve grade. He also averaged 0.71 offloads per game this season and had an offload in his NRL debut, so that skill translated to the higher level.

The first appearance for Ieremia-Toeava in the NZW system seems to be the 2022 World School Sevens tournament squad. Then he was in the SG Ball Cup squad for 2023 and played four games of NSW Cup that year while being U19.

The easiest #KiwiNRL junior to forecast is Leka Halasima playing for Tonga. There are other moves that seem likely and the rest is a guessing game so here are the best guesses...https://t.co/SavWkFnRMy
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) July 31, 2025

De La Salle College has grown into a rugby league powerhouse which has flowed throughout the Kiwi-NRL pipeline. Demitric Vaimauga was the leader of the new wave and NZW also have Kayliss Fatialofa, Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea, Patrick Moimoi and Sikuvea coming out of DLSC. Other Kiwi-NRL juniors from DLSC are listed below as part of the funky group of Kiwi-NRL juniors coming from of a small radius in South Auckland. Based purely on the junior club and school, all of these youngsters grew up within a few kilometers of each other.

NZ Warriors

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava: Otahuhu/De La Salle College
Demitric Vaimauga: Otahuhu/De La Salle College
Leka Halasima: Mangere East/Southern Cross Campus
Ali Leiataua: Papatoetoe/Kings College
Kayliss Fatialofa: Otara/De La Salle College
Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea: Mangere East/De La Salle College
Patrick Moimoi: Mangere East/De La Salle College
Paea Sikuvea: Mangere East/De La Salle College

Around the NRL

Connelly Lemuelu: Tangaroa College (Dolphins)
Benaiah Ioelu: Otara/Tangaroa College (Roosters)
Josiah Karapani: Otahuhu/East Tamaki RU (Broncos)
Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana: Mangere East/Southern Cross Campus (Knights)
Haami Loza: Mangere East/Otara/De La Salle College (Knights)
Francis Manuleleua: Papatoetoe/Kings College (Knights)
Sosaia Latu: Mangere East/Otahuhu College (Knights)
Salesi Ataata: Otahuhu (Rabbitohs)
Ieti Samuelu: Mangere East/De La Salle College (Eels)
Kanaan Magele: De La Salle College (Roosters)
Ben Peni: Papatoetoe (Sharks)
Elijah Paea: De La Salle College (Sharks)

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Peace and love.