Need For Speed
Warriors vs Titans in NRL & NRLW, Auckland FC Women, NZ NBL semi-finals, Blackcaps happenings, Flying Kiwis transfer tracker, Tall Ferns, and more
Scotty’s Word
A win and a loss for New Zealand Warriors vs Titans over the weekend. The NRL team played their best for an impressive win at what is essentially a home ground for Warriors. The NRLW team almost had an epic comeback but that would have covered over some glaring issues for them as they again looked slow and clunky.
I was pondering how the NRLW Warriors looked unfit throughout the first half and early in the second half. Then they scored three tries in the last 20 minutes and each of them was equally as crazy - individual brilliance of the highest order from Mele Hufanga, Ivana Lauitiiti and Stacey Waaka.
Warriors finished stronger than Titans which suggests that they had plenty of juice late in the game, as well as the required grit to fight back. But they didn’t win, stumbling through their last few sets down 16-18 with no clear plan how they were going to score the winning try.
They turned the footy over on the last tackle down the right edge a few times in the final minutes. All their attacking funk is on their left edge but they ignored that in the winning moments. Despite riding a wave of momentum, Warriors never looked confident enough to win when it mattered most.
All of which came after Titans scored three tries in the first 45 minutes and the Warriors scored none. Warriors players were slow to get back into the defensive set up and had no line speed, which has hindered them all season. This flows into their lack of discipline at the ruck as they are desperate to slow things down. Their defence around the ruck is pretty bad.
Titans had a much faster, more agile forward pack led by Kiwi Ferns legend Georgia Hale who registered 56 tackles @ 98%. Hale plays hooker and small forward for Titans, often alongside 19-year-old Wainuiomata junior Fanua Rimoni. Neither are very big, much smaller than the Warriors middle forwards, yet that sums up the need for speed in NRL and NRLW.
Warriors can roll through weaker NRLW teams but when they come up against better teams, who are well drilled in the speed of play of NRLW footy, they can be torn apart through the middle. Having Maarire Puketapu join Kaiyah Atai in the middle forward rotation vs Titans helped as they are more agile than the others, just not enough.
Unfortunately, Titans centre Sarina Masaga left the game with a head knock. The former Howick College student was replaced by Aleksandra Tunufai who made her NRLW debut and she also went to Howick College. Obviously the Aussie commentators had no idea about this, but it’s another crazy moment that sums up the status of rugby league in Aotearoa.
Hale is an NRLW veteran who moved from Warriors to Titans. The other three NRLWahine at Titans all made their NRLW debuts for Titans after leaving Aotearoa with Masaga and Rimoni sliding straight into Queensland footy, while Tunufai had a stint with Sea Eagles before moving up to Queensland.
The NRL Warriors are good for business on the Gold Coast. Titans have had crowds of 20,000+ in the four games hosting Warriors during the two Andys era and they are usually below that mark, especially as a team that has been bottom eight throughout this period.
Three funky Warriors NRL zones...
Warriors haven’t lost three games in a row this season. They have had two patches with back to back losses which had very different vibes. When thinking about their worst phases of this season, the recent period comes to mind but Warriors had two wins before one, just one, loss vs Bulldogs.
Worst patches this season…
Luke Metcalf Chapter
Round 4 vs Tigers: 14-32 loss
Round 5 vs Sharks: 22-36 loss
Hearty Losses
Round 13 vs Panthers: 18-20 loss
Round 15 vs Sharks: 8-10 loss
High Standard Brigade
Round 19 vs Tigers: 32-6 win
Round 20 vs Dragons: 20-12 win
Round 21 vs Bulldogs: 18-6 loss
The first three tries for Warriors sum up their attack as they scored in both corners, then in the middle third. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Alofiana Khan-Pereira are both averaging a try per game this season. Chanel Harris-Tavita and Te Maire Martin both scored tries on either edge, although Martin’s two tries were scored on both sides of the goalposts.
Martin has six tries and nine try assists in 10 games this season. He seems likely to join Harris-Tavita (11) in having 10+ try assists this season, which would mean that all three halves (aside from Luke Metcalf) hit 10 try assists because Boyd had 10 in 10 games.
Wayde Egan’s also got eight try assists this season so he could join the 10+ club. Not all Egan’s try assists are in the middle third but he represents a play-making threat around the ruck, before getting into the wider channels where the halves are.
Erin Clark had two try assists vs Titans and has six for the season, usually getting the ball directly from Egan. These two have combined for 14 try assists this season, highlighting the threat Warriors pose in the middle third as well as the edges.
Edges that looked far more threatening with Leka Halasima at left centre. This gave Warriors two local juniors as their centres along with Ali Leiataua and despite Demitric Vaimauga’s absence, the three young forwards from the three biggest cities in Aotearoa were excellent vs Titans.
Local juniors vs Titans
Ali Leiataua (Papatoetoe): 80mins, 1 try assist, 5 tackle breaks
Leka Halasima (Mangere East): 80mins, 1 try, 1 try assist, 5 tackle breaks,
Jacob Laban (Te Aroha): 70mins, 1 try, 6 tackle breaks, 3 offloads
Tanner Stowers-Smith (Halswell): 45mins, 5 tackle breaks,
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava (Otahuhu): 54mins, 1 try, 5 tackle breaks, 3 offloads
All three of the young forwards had 15+ runs and 25+ tackles as a marker of their mahi. We’ve all seen Warriors juniors who ooze x-factor but I can’t remember having such reliable NRL workers like Laban, Stowers-Smith and Ieremia-Toeava, let alone three doing it all together.
Minutes per game (2025 | 2026)
Demitric Vaimauga: 35 | 35
Jacob Laban: 34 | 56
Tanner Stowers-Smith: 30 | 40
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava: 35 | 42
Francis Manuleleua had another awesome outing for Knights. He played 80 minutes at edge forward in the win vs Broncos and had his fifth linebreak in his first eight games of NRL. Manuleleua and Leiataua were Papatoetoe juniors and played 1st 15 for Kings College together.
Big ups to Kiwi Ferns half Raecene McGregor who had two tries and two try assists for Tigers in their win vs Sharks. McGregor has try assists in all five games this season and eight in total, after eight in her two seasons combined before 2026.
Kiwi Ferns depth is growing quickly with Zahara Temara shifting to Aotearoa and Rosie Kelly leading Cowboys to their first win of the season. Neither of them have played for Kiwi Ferns yet, while Ash Quinlan, Gayle Broughton and Patricia Maliepo have played halves for Kiwi Ferns in recent years.
I’ve been underwhelmed by Broughton this season and Maliepo’s moved to hooker ... where she had no runs vs Titans. Quinlan, Temara and Kelly are solid without demanding a starting role. McGregor’s in a career-best groove and is a veteran half for Kiwi Ferns, so she should be locked in and the others are competing for a spot alongside her.
For paid subscribers
Warriors NRL per game stat profile
Warriors NRL per game stats in two Andys era
Future Warriors team - yet to play NRL
Spotlights on Naufahu Whyte, Rosie Kelly, Tenika Willison, Amelia Pasikala
Stats for winter cricket emergers and Ajaz Patel
Elite young batters in Lachlan Stackpole, Xavier Bell, Tom Jones
Just as I thought Tim Pringle was fully aligned with Blackcaps, he made another ODI appearance for Netherlands. Pringle took 1 wicket @ 4.5rpo in the loss vs Namibia and while he is the best emerging spinner in Aotearoa, Pringle is still a wee way off a Blackcaps debut.
It’s stink to view this as Netherlands helping Pringle develop for Aotearoa, but that’s probably the reality. Pringle is a Northern Districts hardcore from Tauranga who played for NZ-A this year and Netherlands probably know that Pringle will eventually dip into the Aotearoa pool.
Netherlands get the benefits of Pringle now then that will swing around to Aotearoa. Given that New Zealand should be a minnow of global cricket given our size, Aotearoa’s big doggy status in this equation shouldn’t be taken for granted.
A bunch of emerging Blackcaps are busy around the world. Nick Kelly’s in the mature category but he was part of the Test squad late in the tour of Europe and has a 50+ score in each format for Leicestershire this winter.
Matt Boyle was playing T20 Blast for Middlesex earlier in the winter. Dale Phillips is playing T20s in Sri Lanka, while Tim Robinson and Bevon Jacobs have been playing in the Guyana Super League. Robinson’s been the best of the bunch with five 20+ scores in a row making him the leading run-scorer for that tournament.
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
The NBL Grand Final is set and it’s a repeat of last year’s decider. Southland Sharks will host Wellington Saints on Sunday at 3pm. The Sharks got there thanks to a fast start and then some strong second half defence as they held off the Canterbury Rams for an 84-74 win in Christchurch in their semi-final. Walter Brown did what he could for the Cantabs scoring 23 points but he couldn’t get those threes to drop when it mattered. No Taylor Britt for the Rams and you can bet that was an issue in that fourth quarter.
Southland got 26 points from import Caleb Asberry – one of the many dudes who backed it up with a second year down south after going so close to winning it all in 2025... a list that includes American coach Jonathan Yim. The duel between the kiwi bigs Jack Andrew (C) and Sam Timmins (S) was good fun but hampered by Andrew not being 100% fit and also having some foul trouble. Tobias Cameron gets a bonus shout for the Sharks. Only a modest 7p/6r/3a on the box score but the Sharks outscored the Rams by 24 points during his 24 minutes.
Meanwhile it was no contest on Saturday night in the other semi as the Wellington Saints won 112-69 against the Auckland Tuatara. First vs Fourth on the ladder (albeit with only one win separating them) and it was Fourth who blitzed it, leading 93-53 after three quarters to already have it in the bag. Both top seeds lost their semi-finals against teams that had to win midweek games to progress this far.
The Saints were led by 32 points from Aussie guard Elijah Pepper while Carlin Davison (16p/4r/6a) and Jordan Hunt (15p/9r) did their thing. Import Donte Ingram also added 20 points. The most astonishing part of this: Wellington Saints coach Aaron Young has now made five consecutive NBL grand finals. Three with Auckland Tuatara, two with Wellington. He lost all three finals with the Tuatara but won last year with the Saints. The 2025 final was in Wellington, this time the Southland Sharks will get them on their own court.
Also gotta mention that Canterbury’s Jake Holmes was awarded the league’s Young Player of the Year award as the best U21s player across the season. Plenty of challengers for that title but Holmes, who is heading to the University of San Diego next season (same school that Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had a bunch of success with a couple years ago), was a worthy recipient. Gotta love a forward who can knock down threes, plays strong defence for a guy his age, and earned really big minutes during important games (the best way to judge a youngster’s talent is often to see how much their coach trusts them when the game is on the line). This was the third time in the last four seasons that the Canterbury Rams have had the YPotY winner. These were the five finalists, with curated stats via the NBL website...
Jake Holmes (Canterbury Rams) - 8.3 pts, 4.5 reb, 1.1 ast, 1.1 stl, 0.6 blk
Aubrey Chunga (Wellington Saints) - 4.3 pts, 55% FG, 42% 3P
Ihaka Cate (Canterbury Rams) - 5.5 pts, 2.3 reb, 1.8 ast
KC Ioane (Auckland Tuatara) - 3.9 pts, 2.4 reb, 0.6 ast
Xanda Marsters (Tauranga Whai) - 9.4 pts, 3.0 reb, 1.8 ast, 53% 3P
Most Minutes in NZ NBL 2026 By Players Born 2005 or Later
Xanda Marsters (Tauranga/2006) – 449 mins
Jake Holmes (Canterbury/2007) – 446 mins
Ihaka Cate (Canterbury/2007) – 348 mins
Cole Hopoi (Tauranga/2008) – 280 mins
Zavier Adam (Taranaki/2005) – 267 mins
Ezrah Eagle (Hawke’s Bay/2006) – 264 mins
Jackson Ball (Hawke’s Bay/2008) – 262 mins
James Matthews (Nelson/2007) – 192 mins
KC Ioane (Auckland/2007) – 183 mins
Quake Webster (Southland/2005) – 162 mins
Aubrey Chunga (Wellington/2008) – 133 mins
Hunter Savill (Franklin/2008) – 129 mins
Arana Robertson (Wellington/2008) – 118 mins
Mana Martin (Canterbury/2007) – 117 mins
Joshua Wyllie (Auckland/2006) – 112 mins
A bunch of those guys will be representing Aotearoa at the FIBA U18 Asia Cup in two weeks’ time. That tournament is also qualification for next year’s U19 World Cup – New Zealand were runners-up to Australia in the previous edition. The Women’s U18 Asia Cup also takes place in early October.
Junior Tall Blacks squad for 2026 U18 Asia Cup:
Cooper Adams, Jackson Ball, Aubrey Chunga, Cole Hopoi, Hoani Ifopo-Togia, Kingston Kailahi-Aso, Josh Kelly, Harry Kelso, Arana Robertson, Hunter Savill, Cooper Te Ratana, Phil Wickham
Junior Tall Ferns squad for 2026 U18 Asia Cup:
Lily Ashton, Kahsia Bailey-Nowell, Kiana Brown, Shaliyah Forbes, Isabella Gillard, Eva Jeffries, Ngahirata Jennings-Haumaha, Sahara Katene, Riley McClenaghan, Keija Miringaorangi, Willow Smith, Gia Vukona
There’s also a Tall Ferns tour coming up with the Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament later this month. Not a major tourney to worry about (the proper Olympic qualifiers come later) but a good opportunity to get some competitive games in. Aotearoa will face Argentina, Brazil, and South Sudan in pool play.
As we’ve become accustomed to, it’s a very inexperienced Tall Ferns squad that Natalie Hurst has available to her with only Tayla Dalton having played more than 20 times for the national team. Imani Rasmussen has been elevated early after standing out at the U17 World Cup last month. Five of the ten players are based at USA universities – including Florence Dallow who, like Rasmussen, is seeking a senior international debut. Most exciting aspect to this is seeing Lauren Whittaker available after a spectacular first season at Gonzaga Uni where she was the West Coast Conference Player of the Year as a redshirt freshman. The ‘Zags have since moved into the Pac-12 conference (where Charlisse Leger-Walker played with Washington State prior to her transfer to UCLA).
Tall Ferns squad for Pre-Olympic Qualifiers
Ella Brow (Baylor University)
Florence Dallow (University of Portland)
Tayla Dalton (Tauranga Whai/Waverley Falcons)
Bailey Flavell (University of Hawai’i)
Pahlyss Hokianga (University of Portland)
Imani Rasmussen (Harbour/Westlake Girls)
Emilia Shearer (Tauranga Whai/Kilsyth Cobras)
Ella Tofaeono (Townsville Flames/Tasmania Jewels)
Charlotte Whittaker (Mainland Pouākai/UC Capitals)
Lauren Whittaker (Gonzaga University)
The Auckland FC Invitational team has rounded out its squad to face Chelsea on Saturday with a bunch of local additions. Laura Bennett from Melville United, Zoe Doughty from Fencibles, and a quintet of Auckland United players: Piper O’Neill, Alaina Granter, Talisha Green, Saskia Vosper, Aniela Jensen & Olivia Ingham. Good mix of youth and experience there, including two former Wellington Phoenix players in Jensen and Ingham This is only really an AFC team by name, they won’t have a proper team for another year yet (although an U20s team is coming to the National League early next year). Still, it’s a great opportunity for a bunch of local players (and some ring-ins) to take on one of the best teams on the planet so credit to AFC for stepping up and making it happen.
AFC Invitational Squad vs Chelsea
GK – Maddie Iro, Lindsey Harris (USA), Zoe Doughty (USA)
DEF – Abby Erceg, Liz Anton, Mackenzie Barry, Aimee Medwin (AUS), Talisha Green, Alaina Granger, Saskia Vosper
MID – Olivia Chance, Momo Hayashi (JAP), Avaani Prakash (AUS), Claire Winter (USA), Piper O’Neill, Aniela Jensen
FWD – Charlotte Lancaster, Deven Jackson, Maggie Jenkins, Petra Trimis (AUS), Ruby Nathan, Laura Bennett, Olivia Ingham
All New Zealanders unless specified... meaning there’ll be at least six kiwis in the starting line-up for co-coaches Jenny Bindon & Kirsty Yallop to choose from. In terms of players that could be in the mix for Auckland FC transfers ahead of the 2027-28 season… well, to be honest that’s probably all of them. Might be a tad too late for Abby Erceg and Liv Chance though that depends on what they do in the upcoming season. Erceg has hinted she’d like to play closer to home and even turning 37 in January she’d walk into any A-League team.
You’d hope that Mack Barry would test herself overseas if she ever left the Nix so maybe scratch her off the list. But all of the rest of them would make reasonable A-League additions. Some already are ALW players, others have been in the past, and the rest are of a level ready to step up to it (including the imports). Laura Bennett and Piper O’Neill would also be good bets to turn up in the AFC Reserves team next year. Look for them both at the U20 World Cup later this year.
For the Paid Subscribers…
Callum McCowatt’s stalemate at Silkeborg
More kiwi footballer buzz involving Finn Surman, Alina Santos, Max Crocombe, Luke Brooke-Smith & Stipe Ukich
There was also another of those U17 Women’s Development series between the Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC over the weekend. They’ve been doing these semi-regularly since last year for both men and women. Bit different in terms of the environments there since the WeeNix have teams in that age grade and AFC do not, hence their squad was called up from across the different clubs within their TDP agreements, rather than being full-time members of the club like on the WeeNix side (although they do host regular TDP training sessions).
Auckland FC won by an aggregate scoreline of 7-0 across two matches in Wellington so decide for yourself which method works bette. They split a win each last September in the previous edition - there were six AFC players in common between the two collections, with many having aged out of U17s. Piper O’Neill was in that squad. As was Mikaela Bangalan who is now with the Wellington Phoenix.
That AFC squad has a couple of very funky names. Aleesha Gray (there’s a typo in her name there) is based out of Australia, having played for New Zealand U16s this time a year ago during Oceania qualifying and should be in the mix for the U17 World Cup later this year (as will most players across those two squad lists)… but has also been selected in Australian youth camps as recently as June 2026. Charlotte Fraser I’m not sure about, though she appears to have been in the Ole Academy in Wellington as of last year. Not sure if Bree Toatelegese is still with Ellerslie or not but close enough.
Beyond that there were four players from Fencibles United (Chaytor, Besley, Clark, Day), three players from Melville United (Gainsford, Meadows, Humphrey), three from Auckland United (Rice, Saunders, Hedington), two from Eastern Suburbs (Hitchcock, Dwyer), two from Western Springs (Robson, Ellis), and one from Northland (Pirihi). The goals were scored by Amelia Hitchcock x2, Morgan Day x2, Mia Humphrey, Bree Toatelegese, and Isla Robson.
The WeeNix team was basically the same as their U18s team which plays senior footy in the Women’s Central League, although it didn’t include the best few players in that age range who are full-time with the U20s already. So not the best side they could have put out, admittedly. One sneaky signing is Louisa Egley-Turner who has moved across from Wellington United where she was considered one of the region’s top prospects. S’pose that was only a matter of time.
Musical Jam...
