25 in 25: Best Kiwi player in NRL era - Benji, SBW, RTS, Stacey, Taumalolo, Bromwich, JWH?

The 25th season of the NRL is done and dusted so to commemorate the first quarter-century of this instalment of the premiership, The Roar is looking back at the 25 best players and moments in 25 categories.

We have already gone through the best fullbacks, wingers, five-eighths, locks, second-rowers, players to never make Origin, coaches, captains, halfbacks, front-rowers, goal-kickers, recruits, heaviest hitters, rookies and Grand Final moments of the era.

Now it’s time to have a look at the best players who emanated from New Zealand in the modern era.

Rugby league eligibility can be a rubbery set of rules so for the purposes of this exercise, only players who represented New Zealand at Test level have been considered.

Each player has been judged on their collective efforts from 1998 onwards, not including their efforts prior to that season, or if they’re an active player, up until 2022, without speculating on how their career might play out over next season and beyond.

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(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

The top 10 – the best of the best

1 Benji Marshall
2 Jason Taumalolo
3 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
4 Stacey Jones
5 Sonny Bill Williams 
6 Jesse Bromwich
7 Shaun Johnson
8 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves
9 Issac Luke 
10 Ruben Wiki

Marshall’s impact on the NRL over the past 25 years has been the greatest by any New Zealander. He not only inspired the next generation with his attacking flair, he made his teams and teammates better, highlighted by the Wests Tigers’ golden run to the 2005 premiership. Despite a brief dalliance in rugby, he holds the record for most NRL matches by a Kiwi with 346.

Taumalolo has represented Tonga since 2017 but the Auckland-born forward started out at Test level with the Kiwis. A joint-winner of the Dally M Medal, a premiership winner and arguably the most devastating running forward of his generation, the Cowboys star is still only 29 and capable of several more years of destruction.

(Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Tuivasa-Sheck is the only other Kiwi to win the Dally M during the NRL era for his efforts in 2018 dragging the Warriors into the finals. A devastating finisher on the wing early in his career at the Roosters, which including the 2013 Grand Final win, he was elite in attack and defence during his Warriors stint which was unfortunately cut short at the end of 2021 when he opted for a crack at rugby.

Jones was the glue that held the Warriors and the Kiwis together in the early 2000s and the little halfback stood tall in 2002 when he took the Auckland club all the way to the Grand Final, the same year he was awarded the Golden Boot. He played 261 matches for the Warriors amid ever-changing rosters and coaches.

SBW has had a career like few others, alternating NRL stints at Canterbury and twice at the Roosters with successful rugby sojourns with the All Blacks. He made a name for himself during his early years at the Bulldogs as an imposing athlete who could do plenty of damage in attack and defence while the Roosters raved about the professionalism he brought to the club as they surged to the 2013 title.

Bromwich was not touted as a star of the future early in his career but he steadily built a reputation as a powerhouse for Melbourne and the towering prop quickly became a foundation for the Storm’s successful era of three premierships and five grand finals from 2012-20.

Johnson was burdened with “the next Benji” mantle early in his career but he didn’t seem to mind as he helped the Warriors storm through the playoffs to make their second Grand Final in his rookie year of 2011. Criticised in some quarters for not being consistent enough throughout his 227-game NRL career at the Warriors and Sharks, on his day he was one of the best attacking weapons New Zealand has produced. 

JWH was another front-rower who didn’t come into first grade with much hype but his actions spoke louder than words. Heading into his 15th season in 2023, the soon-to-be 34-year-old has 280 NRL matches under his belt as well as three premiership rings and 33 Test jerseys for the Kiwis.

Issac Luke. (AAP Image/David Rowland)

Luke was a ferocious competitor in attack and particularly in defence at hooker during his 286-game career which rose to prominence during eight seasons at Souths before four years at the Warriors and brief stints at the Dragons and Brisbane during his final season of 2020.

Wiki set a standard for professionalism during his 311-match career at Canberra and the Warriors whether he was out wide in the centres early on or packing down in the forwards. Including his 55 Tests for the Kiwis, he played just under 400 first-class matches during his lengthy career from 1993-2008.

Best of the rest – elite performers

11 Kieran Foran
12 Tony Puletua
13 Nigel Vagana
14 Adam Blair
15 Simon Mannering
16 Roy Asotasi
17 Stephen Kearney
18 Manu Vatuvei
19 Joey Manu
20 James Fisher-Harris

Foran was like Benji in that he had a lot of success early in his career, winning the 2011 Grand Final at Manly, but his career stalled in the middle due to injuries as the five-eighth bounced around Parramatta, the Warriors and Canterbury, before he returned home to the Sea Eagles to rejuvenate his career before finishing at the Titans.

Puletua was an integral member of Penrith’s unexpected rise to the premiership in 2003, the second-rower running rampant on the edge of the ruck to give the Panthers an imposing presence for their young side.

Vagana in his prime at Canterbury was a try-scoring machine. The elusive centre had a knack of being in the right spot when needed, notching 57 four-pointers over a three-season stretch before finishing his career with less-effective stops at Cronulla and Souths.

Blair was another Kiwi who burst onto the scene as a young forward, one of the Storm’s best in their 2007 and ‘09 tainted Grand Final wins. He went on to play 331 NRL matches after turning out for the Wests Tigers, Broncos and Warriors, second only to Marshall among Kiwis.

Mannering is the fourth Kiwi member of the 300 club, making 301 appearances for the Warriors. A picture of consistency in the centres or back row from 2005-18 and a respected leader for his club in the later stages of his career. 

Asotasi was not the biggest name in the Bulldogs pack in 2004 but he established a reputation as a heavy hitter and became a key part of their premiership-winning squad. The Dally M prop of the year two seasons later, he spent seven seasons at Souths after his first five at Cantebury, amassing 217 games along the way.

Kearney was a durable second-rower who hit hard in defence and got through a mountain of work and after stints at Wests and the Warriors, was a crucial cog in the Melbourne machine which shocked the NRL by lifting the trophy in their second season in 1999.

Vatuvei’s size, speed and power added up to a try-scoring force for the Warriors on the wing, tallying 152 tries, the most by any Kiwi in the NRL, from 226 matches as well as another 23 from 30 Tests.

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Manu and Fisher-Harris will rise up these rankings as they are both still well and truly in the middle stages of their careers at the Roosters and Panthers respectively. Dual premiership winners, Manu is considered the best centre in the game while JFH is arguably the top prop.

The final five

21 Ali Lauiti’iti
22 Brandon Smith
23 Jeremy Smith
24 Nathan Cayless
25 Jordan Rapana

Lauiti’iti had a short, sharp peak in the early 2000s at the Warriors, his ad-lib style suiting the team’s free-wheeling mantra which took them to the decider. The talented second-rower left the NRL a couple of years later to play the next decade in the Super League.

Brandon Smith’s career has started with a bang, winning a title at the Storm in 2020, and he could become an all-time Kiwi great if his switch to the Roosters to play hooker consistently pays off.

Jeremy Smith instilled toughness into the St George Illawarra pack in 2010 as part of their march to premiership glory while Cayless did likewise over a lengthy Parramatta career which went close to a Grand Final win on two occasions. 

Rapana’s aggression and try-scoring potency on the wing for Canberra was an important element of their 2019 Grand Final campaign and with 94 tries from 180 games, he should reach his century in 2023.

Just missed the cut

Jason Nightingale was a wholehearted performer for the Dragons who made up for not being the flashiest winger by putting everything into each of his 266 NRL games.

There were a few players who were great in the 1990s but their careers were winding down by the time the NRL era kicked off like Matthew Ridge, Jarrod McCracken, Daryl Halligan, Tawera Nikau and Richie Barnett. 

There are a couple of current stars who will compile an even more impressive career resume in the next few years like Dylan Brown and Isaiah Papali’i. 

And there have been plenty of Kiwi stalwarts who built lengthy careers like Isaac Liu, David Kidwell, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Logan Swann, Tony Iro, Peta Hiku, Kenny Bromwich, Dene Halatau and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak who you could make an argument for inclusion in the top 25.