Eager To Scoot
All Whites at the World Cup, Warriors vs Sharks preview, plus Tall Blacks, Blackcaps, White Ferns, Auckland FC/Wellington Phoenix, and more
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors vs Cronulla Sharks on Saturday…
NRL
Warriors: 2nd | 9-3
Sharks: 6th | 7-5
NSW Cup
Warriors: 8th | 6-6
Jets: 5th | 7-4
Jersey Flegg Cup
Warriors: 7th | 6-5
Sharks: 5th | 7-4
There could be three NZW debuts vs Sharks. Makaia Tafua is highly likely to debut as a dummy half, Kayliss Fatialofa is likely to debut as an edge forward, and Jason Salalilo has a slim chance to debut as a middle forward. Two of these players are from Christchurch and I’ll swing back around to that throughout this yarn.
Tafua is a Linwood junior and his sister Jaydika is a Papanui junior who has already played NRLW for Sharks. Jaydika is named at edge forward for Sharks in NSW Women’s Premiership round one and younger brother Evander is one of the best Kiwi-NRL juniors rising through the Bulldogs system. Evander is a Sydenham junior so all three siblings have different junior clubs and that’s aligned with the spread of talent coming out of Christchurch.
Wayde Egan hasn’t played 70+ minutes in an NRL game this season so Tafua’s likely get a few minutes off the bench. He doesn’t have a NSWRL profile despite playing 40+ games of reserve grade so I can’t offer any stats. Tafua’s always eager to scoot but watch out for his shoulders because he is one of the biggest hitters at Mt Smart.
Fatialofa is the grandson of the legend Peter Fatialofa. He came through Otara and Manurewa, as well as the tremendous wave of rugby league talent coming out of De La Salle College. If Fatialofa debuts he will join Demitric Vaimauga and Eddie Ieremia-Toeava as youngsters on the rise at Mt Smart who went to DLS, along with notable Kiwi-NRL juniors Kanaan Magele (Roosters) and Haami Loza (Panthers).
Fatialofa is super funky because he sits comfy between Leka Halasima and Bishop Neal as edge forwards with crazy highlights. He doesn’t have the aerial highlights of Halasima or a midfield chip and chase like Neal, but Fatialofa’s running highlights are just as impressive. He will probably give Marata Niukore a break at edge forward and his speed is nicely suited to NRL footy in 2026.
Salalilo is a Papanui junior who sits behind Tafua, Ieremia-Toeava, Vaimauga and Fatialofa on the bench. Aside from Fatialofa, the bench has all done middle forward mahi for NZW so coach Andrew Webster will probably shuffle others into the middle. Salalilo is another excellent middle forward on the rise though and is named to start in the 13 jersey for NSW Cup.
Watch out for Ieremia-Toeava vs Sharks. He hasn’t stacked up consistent games for NZW as a young forward covering edge and middle so many will overlook Ieremia-Toeava when celebrating local juniors. He made Auckland Rugby representative squads while playing 1st 15 for DLS and then entered the NZW system to play U19s in 2023.
Ieremia-Toeava has never played U21s for NZW. He went on to play four games of NSW Cup in 2023 and then played 25 games in 2024, followed by 17 games last year with an NRL debut. All of that happened while he was eligible for U21s so these are strong indicators of Ieremia-Toeava’s talent.
Ieremia-Toeava made the most tackles for NZW in the NSW Cup Grand Final (39 @ 100%) and State Championship (39 @ 91%) last year. He played through the middle in the win vs Eels and then came on for Roger Tuivasa-Sheck vs Dragons to play edge forward with Halasima moving to centre.
I expect Ieremia-Toeava to play as a middle forward vs Sharks along with Vaimauga. He can cover edge forward and centre as well, giving lots of flexibility and that’s why I think he will become a regular bench forward over the next year. Both he and Fatialofa are capable centres but Fatialofa hasn’t started many games at centre in NSW Cup while Ieremia-Toeava has covered centre mid-game in NRL and started games at centre in NSW Cup.
The Aotearoa flavour for Sharks this weekend…
NRL
KL Iro (Mt Albert), Ronaldo Mulitalo (Ellerslie), Mawene Hiroti (Western Suburbs)
NSW Cup
Morgan Harper (Ngaruawahia), Felix Fa’atili (Hornby)
Women’s Premiership
Julliana Kolio (Linwood), Najvada George (Melbourne), Jaydika Tafua (Papanui), Alianna Tonu’u (Otara)
Jersey Flegg Cup
Pharrell Gray (Victoria Hunters), Manako Piutau (St Paul’s College), Jake White (Bell Block)
Add in Fa’atili and Kolio to the Christchurch crew named so far. Also notable is White who is from New Plymouth and has moved up from U19s this season as a middle forward who made Australian Schoolboys last year.
Almost half of the Broncos team this week is from Aotearoa...
Hayze Perham: Pikiao
Josiah Karapani: Otahuhu
Antonio Verhoeven: Cobden-Kohinoor
Jesse Arthars: East Coast Bays
Preston Riki: Rawene
Jordan Riki: Hornby
Xavier Willison: Whatawhata
Aublix Tawha: Turangawaewae
J-Riki is another Christchurch junior and, along with Willison and Verhoeven, was recruited by Broncos from New Zealand. All the other Kiwi-NRL juniors joined Broncos from other NRL systems with Perham, Karapani and P-Riki starting out with NZW before moving to Australia.
The Rabbitohs NSW Women’s Premiership team is linked to NZW which will give those not involved in NRLW games the chance to play reserve grade level games for Rabbitohs. This was not the case last season which made the way the youngsters settled in NRLW even more impressive as they did so without any reserve grade experience.
I don’t recognise any NZW names in the Rabbitohs team named for round one. I do recognise Langi Veainu who played NRLW for NZW in 2019 and is named at centre, along with Summer van Gelder who is named at edge forward. Van Gelder played for Mt Albert before moving to the Bulldogs system where she spent the last few years and while she has no links to NZW, maybe her move to Rabbitohs puts her in the wider NZW mixer.
Other NRLWahine from Christchurch named in NSW Women’s Premiership...
Olive Connolly: Panthers | Linwood | middle forward
Terongomaianiwaniwa Williams | Bulldogs | Eastern Eagles | middle forward
Manisha Seebeck: Roosters | Hornby | wing
For paid subscribers
Two Lukes & a Jett
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava stats
NZ Warriors deep cuts
Matt Henry’s colonial struggles
Updated Blackcaps vs England stats
Full lists of Blackcaps strike-rates/economy rates vs England
Basics for Tests at The Oval
Thankfully Gus Atkinson won’t be playing for England in the second Test vs Blackcaps… oh and Ben Stokes too. Atkinson has been awesome in Tests vs Aotearoa (19w @ 17.7avg/3.1rpo) with wickets in all eight innings, taking 2+ wickets in five of those innings. Atkinson also plays for Surrey so The Oval is his home ground in County Championship and we don’t have to worry how good Atkinson may have been at The Oval vs Blackcaps.
This tour started at Lord’s and will move a few kilometres south to The Oval. That’s like Blackcaps playing one Test at the Basin Reserve and the second Test at the Caketin, or All Blacks playing consecutive Tests in a tour at Eden Park and Mt Smart. Nothing about England cricket makes much sense and yet they love beating the Blackcaps.
The Blackcaps last played a Test at The Oval in August, 1999. They have played five Tests at Lord’s since 2010 and have lost four of them with one draw. Lord’s has the cricketing vibe but Blackcaps only lose there and their pitch sucks, so screw Lord’s.
Matt Henry loved bowling to Zak Crawley. But Crawley isn’t playing and Henry hasn’t been that good vs England outside of his automatic wickets vs Crawley. Henry averages a solid but not dominant 33.61 vs England and 41.17 in England. Despite Henry settling into his world-class groove over the last five years, he still averages 29.4 vs England and 40 in England which are well above his Test bowling average of 22 since the start of 2020.
Batters in current squad who have lower strike-rates vs England than their Test careers: Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Henry Nicholls.
Bowlers in current squad who have higher economy rates vs England than their Test careers: Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Will O’Rourke, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Glenn Phillips.
Rosemary Mair is still tracking as a 1st 11 seamer for White Ferns at the T20 World Cup even though she couldn’t change things up during the two warm up games...
2025 T20Is: 11.3ov, 1w @ 106avg/9.2rpo
2026 T20Is: 30.2ov, 2w @ 100avg/6.5rpo
Warm up vs Bangladesh: 3ov, 1w @ 7.3rpo
Warm up vs South Africa: 3ov @ 12.3rpo
Another thing I’ve been tracking is how Suzie Bates isn’t bowling much. Nensi Patel is clearly the second spinner behind Melie Ker and while we got a Flora Devonshire flourish vs Bangladesh, White Ferns went back to their regular combos vs South Africa and Devonshire clearly isn’t in their 1st 11 plans.
This leaves Bates as a lower order batter who may bowl the odd over. It’s still a fascinating role in a World Cup but White Ferns have plenty of all-round balance to carry Bates as a vibes leader.
T20I overs this year
Melie Kerr: 38
Nensi Patel: 22
Suzie Bates: 9
Flora Devonshire: 3
Overs in T20 World Cup warm ups
Melie Kerr: 7
Nensi Patel: 6
Flora Devonshire: 3
Suzie Bates: 2
T20Is this year
Melie Kerr: 11w @ 20.8avg/6rpo
Nensi Patel: 9w @ 9.8avg/4rpo
Suzie Bates: 2w @ 37.5avg/8.3rpo
Flora Devonshire: 1w @ 19avg/6.3rpo
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
Probably won’t be doing a Flying Kiwis roundup this week or next week, club football has pretty much all stopped for the World Cup and the transfer windows aren’t open yet so there’s just not much happening. That allows me to put full focus on the All Whites with a little dash of Football Ferns alongside (once I finish my Auckland FC season review). But of course that doesn’t mean nothing’s happened. There’s always something going on, for example Troy Putt scored his first goal for Minnesota United 2 in the MLS Next Pro league.
Putt was part of the last U20 World Cup squad for NZ, coming through Birkenhead United, and was going to sign for the Auckland FC Reserves until this gig came along. He’s in his second year with MNU2, used mostly out of position as a fullback last year but then he impressed kiwi MLS coach Cam Knowles in preseason and earned an MLS debut off the bench. Since then he’s had a spell out injured but has otherwise settled into a more appropriate attacking role for the reserves and look what he’s done with that. Speedy winger/forward with crazy fitness (part of that impressing in preseason idea was that he won the club beep test), perhaps shades of a younger Matt Garbett if you want a comparison to hang onto.
And Riley Bidois scored too. He plays in the USL Championship which is sort of equivalent to Next Pro but with standalone clubs rather than MLS affiliates/reserves. However his latest goal came in a USL Cup game. Monterey Bay drew 1-1 against Sacramento FC away, going on to lose on penalties. It’s group stage footy not knockouts but it was their second to last group game and they needed to win to keep a realistic chance of progressing. Sacramento had a dude sent off after thirty minutes and they still couldn’t do it. Nevertheless, Bidois’ goal means that since he returned to starting line-up (after an injury and late arrival), he’s scored four goals in three games.
And if you want some transfer updates on the likes of Tyler Bindon, Kate Taylor, Alex Paulsen, Mickey Foster, Marley Leuluai, and others then you’re just going to have to sign up for a paid subscription… also comes with some Tall Blacks chat for the people
There has also been movement on the A-League front. Auckland FC have announced contract extensions for both Cam Howieson and Michael Woud. Two of their championship heroes from the recent finals run. Howieson was coming off contract following an initial two-year deal so that’s good business there, while Michael Woud is a bit more confusing because he already had another year on his reported deal so either they’re announcing a previously existing contract option or he’s added another year on the end of that present deal. Or maybe strewn the previous deal away and given him a pay-rise in which case he hasn’t extended his stay at all.
It’s confusing because Auckland FC never seem to announce the length of these contracts for some reason. Pretty much every other A-League club does except them. But one way or another, Howieson and Woud will be back again. Hiroki Sakai already signed a new one-year deal in April while Luka Vicelich signed on scholarship terms in January. Beyond that it was so full steam ahead for the trophy that they haven’t done much else (at least not that’s been made public) with more than half of their squad slated to come off contract.
The Wellington Phoenix did the ol’ favourite PR move of bad news leading into good news so Ifeanyi Eze, who wasn’t listed on their initial exodus of free agents, has now told the club that he intends to “pursue options outside of the A-League” so he’s gone. They left the door open unless he couldn’t find anything better but that was never a likely outcome. Then a few hours later they announced that James McGarry has wrangled an early release from the Brisbane Roar and will re-join the Nix for his third stint with the club, signing on a two-year contract. McGarry’s been on the fringes of the All Whites over the past twelve months and just had an injury-free season with Brisbane Roar. He won the ALM with Central Coast a few years ago and has played professionally in the top divisions of Netherlands and Scotland.
With Dan Edwards released, McGarry is a direct upgrade in that left-back position. They also have Lukas Kelly-Heald who is placed in an odd spot by this move. Presuming that Chris Greenacre rolls with a back four like he did at the end of last season, that offers a left-back dynamic between LKH who is a very good defensive fullback with large attacking deficiencies and McGarry who is a very good attacking fullback with large defensive deficiencies... though McGarry’s defence did improve a fair bit during his time with Aberdeen. McGarry will be the starter which leaves LKH as a back-up covering both left-back and centre-back. He’ll probably feel like he’s ready to try nail down a starting role... but then he’s only one injury away so it’s not the worst spot to be in.
James McGarry:
4 goals, 8 assists in 84 ALM appearances (1G/3A last season)
Lukas Kelly-Heald:
0 goals, 3 assists in 60 ALM appearances (0G/0A last season)
And for the Wellington Phoenix Women, no fresh announcements there but the latest Domestic Football weekly wrap had a bit about how out-of-contract academy players Ela Jerez (Wellington United), Ella McMillan (Waterside Karori), and Grace Bartlett (Auckland United) have all linked up with other clubs around Aotearoa. Ela Jerez scored a hat-trick on debut for the Diamonds. This doesn’t preclude them from rejoining the Nix next A-League season but you’d imagine that they won’t, given how none of them were factors once the squad got settled.
You recall that thing last week about the two New Zealanders picked in the NBL Next Stars team that went to the Adidas Eurocamp development tournament? Well, the Next Stars won all three games to win that mini-championship. The tournament is designed as a pre-draft workout focusing mostly on international players trying to get into the NBA so it’s not a results driven thing but the games were proper games and the NBL team won.
First game was a 90-63 win over Team World where both Jackson Ball and Jayden Cecil were in the starting line-up. Cecil, who is still only 16yo and presumably the youngest dude in the team, then dropped to the bench for limited minutes in the next two but Jackson Ball became even more prominent in a 94-88 win over Eurocamp 2 (against a team that features Victor Wembanyama’s younger brother) and then a 66-62 win over Eurocamp 1.
Phil Handy coached the Next Stars, a current Dallas Mavericks assistant who has worked with LeBron James in both Cleveland and Los Angeles. His main assistant was... Petteri Koponen! The Breakers head coach for the past two seasons. New Zealand’s Ross McMains (current assistant for the Boston Celtics and regular on Tall Blacks benches throughout the years) was also among the coaches involved, working under Milwaukee Bucks assistant Rex Kalamian with the 3Stripes Select team.
Jackson Ball Box Scores
G1: 19:15 MIN | 11 PTS (5/9 FG, 1/4 3PT) | 1 REB
G2: 27:39 MIN | 14 PTS (5/11 FG, 3/7 3PT) | 6 REB | 3 AST
G3: 27:40 MIN | 6 PTS (3/9 FG, 0/4 3PT) | 2 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL
Jayden Cecil Box Scores
G1: 17:28 MIN | 6 PTS (2/4 FG, 1/3 3PT) | 1 REB | 1 AST
G2: 4:49 MIN | 0 PTS (0/0 FG)
G3: 3:49 MIN | 0 PTS (0/1 FG, 0/1 3PT) | 1 REB | 1 AST
Here’s New Zealand’s World Cup squad as per the official documents...
Top Five All Whites Middle Names:
The Zen Brothers – Joe Zen Robert Bell & Nando Zen Pijnaker
The President – Thomas Jefferson Smith
Cook Islands Represent – Maxime Teremoana Crocombe
Samoan-Serbian Connection – Marko Seufatu Nikola Stamenić
Italian From Wellington – Liberato Gianpaolo Cacace
And further to a talking point from a few newsletters ago you may notice there that for the third major tournament in a row (the others being the last two Olympics), Alexander Noah Paulsen has been listed as 193cm tall which is so blatantly untrue that it either shows that they don’t put any effort into those details or it shows that someone (maybe AP himself, maybe his coaches/scouts) is conscious enough about his height to want to hide it. NZ Football submits those team lists to FIFA, so that’s where it stems from. Maybe it’s just a typo that keeps getting copy-pasted?
Musical Jam...
