Sydney Roosters Are 2026 NRLW And NRL Champions With New Zealand Flavour Sprinkled Throughout
For the first time in their illustrious history, Sydney Roosters have won NRLW and NRL championships in the same year. This was their third NRLW championship and all three have come this decade, with Kiwi Fern Otesa Pule and current Samoan international Amber Hall helping Roosters win the last two.
Pule has been with Roosters for five seasons and she has only lost seven NRLW games in her career. Having chosen to represent Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns before State of Origin, Pule has become one of the best forwards in women's rugby league. Availability is her best ability with 10+ games in four consecutive seasons, which sharpens to 13 games in each of her last two seasons with a 25-1 record.
Hall has switched from Kiwi Ferns to Samoa late in her career and she is in her fourth season with Roosters after starting her NRLW career with four seasons for Broncos. Hall played one game in 2023 and has since played 30 games in her last three seasons with just one loss. She has scored at least three tries in each of her last three seasons and has an impeccable 20-0 record in her last two seasons.
Roosters appear to be building out their wahine development pipeline below their elite NRLW group. While not as comprehensive as their men's recruitment from New Zealand, Roosters have two Randwick juniors from Wellington in Te Raukura Leafe and Luca-Bella Ngatuere-Ongley who played Under 19 Tarsha Gale Cup before moving up to NSW Women's Premiership.
Manisha Seebeck is another junior from Aotearoa who played in the Roosters system this year as a Hornby junior from Christchurch. Leafe and Ngatuere-Ongley are forwards, while Seebeck is an outside back. There is a distinct Auckland presence in the Roosters top-tier but the two Wellington wahine and a growing group of youngsters from the rugby league hot pocket of Christchurch signal how Roosters have invested in recruiting from all of Aotearoa.
Roosters have two of the best emerging outside backs from New Zealand and they are both Hornby juniors. Seebeck is joined by Jackson Stewart who has left NZ Warriors to join Roosters and he did the U19/U21 double last year, followed by the U21/NSW Cup double this year.
While not related to this two Hornby juniors, Roosters did whip up a connection with Rolleston College in Christchurch to be their South Island Academy base. Roosters have other excellent juniors from Christchurch and the South Island already in their system below U19, showing how Roosters are tapped in with the best rugby league regions around Aotearoa.
This includes Seymour Stowers-Smith who played U19 and U21s for Roosters while still based in Christchurch at St Andrew's College. Stowers-Smith is a Halswell junior and younger brother of Tanner, who played two games of U19s followed by one game for the U21 Roosters before returning to Aotearoa.
Most of the Kiwi-NRL juniors at Roosters fit into the U21 bracket. Stewart, Kanaan Magele and Charleston Te Rore all played NSW Cup on top of U21 footy. Auckland halves Ryder Williams and Tyrone Hurt-Pickering (both Marist) played U21s this year, while EJ Mahu-Delamere, Nathan Lopamaua, Austyn Ah Toon-Hotene and Stowers-Smith played U19s before chipping in at the U21 leavel.
Former De La Salle College student Magele was a regular in NSW Cup this season as a middle forward, while still eligible for U21s. He played 18 games of reserve grade including a few as a starting prop after helping Roosters win the first of their back to back SG Ball Cup championships.
Te Rore is an Otara junior who played 11 games of NSW Cup this year as a 17-year-old middle forward. He finished his reserve grade campaign playing 30+ minutes in most of his games, after being part of the Roosters team who won the SG Ball Cup earlier this year. Te Rore's 11 games of NSW Cup matched his 11 games of U19s and he only played one game of U21s this season.
Kiwi-NRL juniors in back to back Roosters U19 championships
2025
Jackson Stewart, EJ Mahu-Delamere, Kanaan Magele, Phillip Lavakeiaho (now Rabbitohs)
2026
EJ Mahu-Delamere, Bastion Armstrong, Charleston Te Rore, Nathan Lopamaua
Mahu-Delamere was a key figure in both championships and then he scored 17 tries in his first 12 games of U21s. Capable of playing most backline positions like Stewart, Mahu-Delamere is a Papatoetoe junior who went to Aorere College before moving to Sydney. Along with Lopamaua who came through James Cook High School and elevated to U21s late in the season, as well as Otahuhu junior Armstong, there is a heavy duty South Auckland presence throughout the Roosters system that is led by their NRL champions.
Salesi Foketi, Siua Wong and Benaiah Ioelu all have links back to South Auckland. Foketi is a Papakura and Manurewa junior who went to St Paul's College. Wong started out in Christchurch with Burnham before moving to Auckland where he played for Manurewa and went to Mt Albert Grammar. Ioelu is from Otara and played for a few clubs in Auckland while at Tangaroa College.
Wong finished his schooling in Sydney where he played 1st 15 rugby union for The Scot's College, while Whyte and Ioelu also played 1st 15 for their respective schools. Roosters do well to adapt to each individual and find the best route for their development, which is evident in their Aotearoa juniors who were part of the Grand Final squad.
Whyte, Foketi and Ioelu all dabbled in footy for Roosters while still in Auckland but they made the full-time move once their schooling was finished. This flows throughout their pipeline as some finished school in Aotearoa and others were put into schools in Sydney, plus they have variety in the backgrounds of their Kiwi-NRL juniors.
Whyte, Foketi, Wong, Ioelu, Magele, Te Rore and a few more have only played in the Roosters system. Roosters have also picked up others like Stewart (Warriors), Hurt-Pickering (Warriors), Williams (Knights) and Ah Toon-Hotene (Knights) from other systems at the junior level. While not as common, Roosters have recruited players like Papatoetoe junior Lavakeiaho who then departed for Rabbitohs and Mt Albert junior Cassius Tia was part of the same cluster as Whyte, Foketi and Ioelu.
All four of the Kiwi-NRL juniors in the Roosters Grand Final squad played U19s for Roosters. Whyte started in U19s, while the other three started in U17s and all but Wong were linked to Roosters while still in Auckland. This is extra notable because the previous Joseph Manu/Stili Tupouniua era finished a few years ago and Roosters have refreshed their Aotearoa presence with some of the best Kiwi-NRL talent they have ever had.
It can be a bit cringe how Roosters celebrate their 'local juniors' and seem to diminish their excellence in recruiting from Aotearoa. This requires resources and that's where the Roosters thrive, yet every NRL organisation is recruiting players from Aotearoa so Roosters are merely doing the same thing but better. Most of their Kiwi-NRL juniors build hearty connections to Roosters having spent years in the system and their latest cluster of NRL champions from Aotearoa offers the best example of that.
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