Oz stint may help NRL ambition

Iwa Tyson Te Koi is a big Brisbane Broncos fan, but that may change soon when he takes up a scholarship at a Wests Tigers-affiliated school in Australia.

The Year 12 student from Ngaruawahia High School will attend Keebra Park State High School, on the Gold Coast, for the next two years and live the dream of every young rugby league player intent on one day making it into the NRL.

Te Koi, 16, has played league with the Turangawaewae club since he was four and, this year, a stellar season with the Waikato under-16s resulted in him being included in the New Zealand Maori under-16 tournament team and the NZRL Merit 16s selection team.

The 1.91-metre tall, 109kilogram second rower has played in numerous Waikato age-group teams and his idol is Frank Pritchard.

Te Koi was invited by the Keebra Park school to a one-day trial in Auckland for 240 youngsters and he was one of two boys selected for the scholarship. "I was pretty happy," Te Koi said.

Keebra Park school opened in 1973 and is regarded as Queensland's premier rugby league nursery – offering a programme to train the students in areas such as skill development, weight training, diet and nutrition, public speaking, sport psychology and gender/relationships studies, with the players playing games for the school on weekends.

Even though the Tigers are based in Sydney, their youth identification programme sees them affiliated to Keebra Park. There are other clubs with eyes on the youngsters and the NRL's Toyota Cup under-20s competition now offers a pathway to the top for them.

"You could easily get picked up, there's always scouts at the games," Te Koi said.

Notable NRL players who have come through the school include Benji Marshall, Ben Teo, Greg Eastwood, Rangi Chase and Jamahl Lolesi.

Te Koi's major goal is to one day play for the Kiwis and he said the key to getting there would be commitment, family support and hard training.

He heads to the Gold Coast just before Christmas to acclimatise to the heat and the new surroundings before school starts back in January, and currently he is running and swimming so he is in peak condition when he arrives.

His Aunty Bobbin, whom he lives with, has already noticed a difference in attitude.

"He's just been waking up earlier than normal every day. He's just started training hard," she said.

"It's gone from PlayStation and turning up to trainings when he feels like it, to an everyday thing."