Naufahu Whyte has barely had time to celebrate his first NRL premiership but the Roosters enforcer is already preparing for another shot at international glory.<\/p>\n
Little more than a week after producing a remarkable grand final performance, Whyte will swap his Roosters colours for the black jersey when New Zealand opens its World Cup campaign against the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old played a starring role in the 19-18 victory over Newcastle, running for 189 metres and breaking four tackles as the Roosters fought back from 12-0 down to claim their first title since 2019.<\/p>\n
It capped a breakout season for Whyte, who has emerged as one of the game’s middles and was rewarded with Dally M Team of the Year honours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have dreamt my whole life since I was a little kid to be in this position and to be here right now, it still doesn\u2019t feel real,\u201d Whyte said in the winning sheds post-match.<\/p>\n
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Naufahu Whyte Try<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew our boys were going to bounce back. We came into half-time six points down but we still had that confidence and that belief to get the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of people doubted us and wrote us off, thinking we weren\u2019t going to win this. I love proving haters wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that they were talking about the Knights throughout the week. That gave us external motivation to go out there and prove people wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, with a premiership ring on his finger, Whyte has barely had time to soak it all in before turning his attention to the World Cup.<\/p>\n
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Roosters v Knights \u2013 Grand Final, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always special representing my home,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like I\u2019m only going to have one day off, then I\u2019m straight into camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always special pulling on that black jersey. For myself, that\u2019s my home, that\u2019s where I grew up, that\u2019s where footy started for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny opportunity I get to put that black jersey on, I wear it with pride and do what I do best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to this World Cup and hopefully I can get another championship there.\u201d<\/p>\n
First up is a blockbuster against the Kangaroos at Allianz Stadium, where Whyte will go toe-to-toe with Roosters teammates James Tedesco and Sam Walker.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrothers right now, but once you cross that white line at Allianz, it\u2019s war,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>\n
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Kangaroos v Kiwis – Pacific Cup final, 2023<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we do as players. You play with each other, then the next week you\u2019re against each other. It\u2019s just what we do, it\u2019s the people that we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know how to turn that switch when it\u2019s coming against your brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s all love. It\u2019ll be a good battle against the brothers, but we\u2019re going to enjoy the celebrations as brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
At just 24, Whyte is already a premiership winner and six-Test Kiwi, but his rise this season has firmly established him among the NRL\u2019s emerging elite forwards.<\/p>\n
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Career night for Whyte<\/p>\n
His next challenge will be to bring that blistering form into the World Cup, where New Zealand boasts an imposing front-row rotation featuring some of the game\u2019s most experienced props.<\/p>\n
Whyte will line up alongside the likes of James Fisher-Harris, Joseph Tapine and Moses Leota, players he has looked up to throughout his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those brothers, they\u2019ll be the brothers I look up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been looking up to them since being in the Kiwis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever I can give my input in my game or speaking, whatever that may be, I\u2019ll do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a group of all-star leaders in our team that pave the way for us young ones coming through.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naufahu Whyte has barely had time to celebrate his first NRL premiership but the Roosters enforcer is already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-919815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}