Rugby League World Cup breakout stars: The Lebanese DJ, Kumuls wrecking ball and next-gen Tonga half

One of the great joys of the World Cup, especially the early stages, is that you get to see a lot of players you’ve never heard of.

In an ever-connected world, with YouTube highlight compliations and comprehensive stats, it’s not often that an diehard is genuinely surprised by someone – but, if you’re a casual fan who only watches the NRL and Origin, then you are in for a treat in the first three weeks of competition.

Australia and New Zealand are packed with star names, as are England, Tonga and Samoa. You’ll probably recognise a fair few from Fiji, PNG, Ireland and Lebanon too. But, beyond that list, there’s a whole world out there of talent waiting to be recognised.

This is one of the great shop windows. Most of the big sides will likely cruise the groups and use them as a tune-up for the latter stages, but there’ll be guys out there looking to prove that they can cut it at a higher level.

There’s lifelong State Cup stars who will get a chance to shine, borderline first graders thrust into leadership roles in lesser nations and players from across the Super League and English lower leagues given a moment in the limelight. Here’s who to watch.

Sunia Turuva – Fiji

Sunia Turuva, the Panthers and Fiji fullback, might be pushing it as a breakout star. After all, he was the man of the match in the midseason Pacific Test – even though the Bati lost to PNG – and has been one of the best players in the NSW Cup this year. He also made three appearances in the NRL for Penrith.

But at the age of 20, Turuva is still very much in the ‘breakout’ portion of his career, and if you haven’t seen him yet, then Fiji’s matches will be appointment viewing. Tito, as he is known, has been one of the superstars of the NSW Cup, covering wing, centre and fullback.

He’s a low-to-the-ground, tackle-busting ball of energy with a step off both feet and the ability to pop up on both sides of the field. Australia in game one might not be his chance to shine, but when the Bati take on Scotland and Italy, Tito will be front and centre.

Isaiya Katoa – Tonga

Back in 2017, Samoa picked a young half with no NRL experience. He was the only player in their side never to have featured in the top grade. That was Jarome Luai, who I will presume you have now heard of.

This year’s edition will see Tonga bring a similarly unheralded halves prospect, Isaiya Katoa. He was the star of the Penrith u-20s team before opting to sign for the Dolphins for next year, his pathway to the No.7 jumper at the Panthers blocked by Nathan Cleary.

On signing, he was dropped from Flegg and subsequently played rugby union for his school, Barker College and for Glenmore Park in the Penrith comp. By the end of the year, however, he was back in the Panthers ranks, starring on the final round of NSW Cup and then dropping back to win the Flegg Grand Final.

This is likely to be the first that anyone has seen of him in a major way – unless you happen to watch park footy, or Penrith lower grades – and the wraps could not be bigger. Tonga have had everything but a halfback – until now.

Innes & Louis Senior – Ireland

Innes Senior is certainly not new to anyone who watches Super League, but this will be his breakout tournament on the world stage. He plays at Huddersfield, and if you were wondering why the Giants were willing to let Dom Young leave their ranks in 2019, Innes is your answer.

Senior was on the wing the night Young made his debut in the Super League and was firmly in front of him in the pathway, with his brother Louis – also playing for Ireland – on the other side.

Whatever they feed kids in Huddersfield works: both the Senior twins, as well as Young, are huge and represent a substantial change from the Super League wingers of the past.

Innes is big, strong, fast and incredibly tall, perfect for the set-start heavy style of footy that has long been the norm in the NRL: he was close to the top of the kick return metres stats in Super League while Louis was right up there for total metres.

Khaled Rajab – Lebanon

Lebanon have one of the best halves pairings at the World Cup, with top line NRL talent in Mitchell Moses and Adam Doueihi slated to start. It’s not a great position to be in for a rookie halfback.

Yet, when they played their warm-up game against Wales at the weekend, one of the standouts was a little bloke in the six jumper: Bulldogs junior grade star Khaled Rajab.

Khaled – known as ‘DJ’ for obvious reasons – has had a meteoric rise. He was the 2019 u-18s player of the year, began 2022 in u-20s, where he topped the line break assists charts, before ending the season in a NSW Cup Grand Final for Canterbury. Now, the World Cup beckons.

He’s impossible to miss, with a beard and a ponytail, and will likely come off the bench for the Cedars in the 14 to add invention to the attack. Rajab isn’t the biggest, but plays hard and has a huge step, perfect for broken play situations.

Edwin Ipape – PNG

Edwin Ipape could not have a more romantic rugby league story. Born in Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, he got his break with the PNG Hunters in the Q Cup, later moving to the UK to play for Leigh in the second-tier Championship.

There, he has kicked on massively. Ipape managed a ridiculous streak of 18 tries in 16 games to finish the year with promotion to next season’s Super League.

He picked up the Champioship Player of the Year gong in the process, an achievement all the more remarkable because he did it off the bench, starting just four games in the hooking position.

Ipape is everything you want from the Kumuls: low centre of gravity and incredibly strong, but also deft with the ball and quick to spot an opportunity. The chance to see him face off behind the ruck with Siliva Havili and Soni Luke, the dual Tonga 9s, is one of the best match-ups of the first round of fixtures.

Tony Gigot and Billy Magoulias – France and Greece

Speaking of great match-ups: on the Monday night of the first round, two of rugby league’s great mavericks will go head to head. Tony Gigot, the magic man of French rugby league, will play against Billy Magoulias, the Galloping Greek, a creature too weird to live in the modern game.

If these two had been about in the 1980s, we’d probably be talking about them among the great players of the age.

Gigot is 31 now, with hundreds of games of Super League under his belt and even a Lance Todd Trophy, the man of the match award in the Challenge Cup Final.

He is the definition of a maverick: a 40/20 machine, a supreme long passer, a big body in the halves and, above all, never, ever afraid to try the unexpected. When put into a good team at the Catalans, he was superb, and in a bad team at Toulouse, the source of their best attack.

He had a stint at the Sharks in Australia, but never made the NRL, presumably because he’s a completely uncontrollable flair player. Tony Gigot is not a man who cares too much about completion rates.

Neither, one suspects, does Magoulias. He’s 25 but has fit a lot into a short career. In 16 games at NRL level for the Sharks, he failed to impress, and it’s hard to say that he did in his short string in the Super League at Warrington either.

Yet go watch him at Newtown Jets: his playmaking, kicking, offloading and running are elite, and like Gigot, he does not worry about trying things that might not come off.

In the Jets’ fairytale run from 8th to win the 2019 State Championship, he chip-kicked in the final seconds with the game on the line in both the NSW Cup final and the State Cup final…and twice came up trumps.

Even this year, with the NSW Cup minor premiership on the line, he went for it with the most outlandish play possible – and it worked. Greece’s attacking philosophy, as much there will be one, will be simple: give it to Billy.