{"id":622340,"date":"2026-10-06T14:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622340\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:20:09","slug":"cook-islands-confirm-rugby-league-world-cup-squad-valentine-holmes-to-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622340\/","title":{"rendered":"Cook Islands confirm Rugby League World Cup squad, Valentine Holmes to debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valentine Holmes<\/a> will debut for the Cook Islands<\/a> at the Rugby League<\/a> World Cup, as the Aitu look to perform a miracle against New Zealand<\/a> and Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cook Islands<\/a> squad features Holmes alongside the likes of KL Iro<\/a>, Makahesi Makatoa<\/a>, Esan Marsters<\/a>, Davvy Moale<\/a>, Marata Niukore<\/a>, Pride Petterson-Robati<\/a>, Brad Takairangi<\/a> and Mason Teague<\/a> as players with either current or prior NRL<\/a> experience.<\/p>\n

Holmes has spent his career in the mix for Australian jerseys, however, approaching the twilight, he was convinced by the ever passionate Iro to switch allegiances and turn out for the small Pacific Island nation.<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n

The big out for the Cook Islands<\/a> is Brendan Piakura<\/a>, who has played for the nation previously but is unavailable for this World Cup as he grapples with a career-threatening string of concussions that left him sidelined at the Brisbane Broncos<\/a> during the second half of the NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

The Cook Islands<\/a>, who qualified for the tournament by beating South Africa last year, will open their tournament against Fiji<\/a> in Newcastle on Sunday, October 18, before clashing with New Zealand<\/a> in Christchurch, and Australia<\/a> in Townsville.<\/p>\n

The top two teams from their Group A go through to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Cook Islands squad for 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/p>\n

Cameron Brown<\/a> (Brisbane Tigers)
Rhys Dakin<\/a> (Sydney Roosters<\/a>)
Glassie Glassie (Wests Tigers<\/a>)
Valentine Holmes<\/a> (St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>)
Esom Ioka<\/a> (Brisbane Tigers)
KL Iro<\/a> (c) (Cronulla Sharks<\/a>)
Chaev Kolone (Canberra Raiders<\/a>)
Makahesi Makatoa<\/a> (Sydney Roosters<\/a>)
Esan Marsters<\/a> (Bradford Bulls<\/a>)
Amare Milford<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>)
Davvy Moale<\/a> (Melbourne Storm<\/a>)
K-CI Newton-Whare (Melbourne Storm<\/a>)
Rua Ngatikaura<\/a> (North Sydney Bears)
Marata Niukore<\/a> (c) (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>)
Pride Petterson-Robati<\/a> (Souths Logan Magpies)
Reuben Porter<\/a> (St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>)
Reubenn Rennie<\/a> (Toulouse Olympique<\/a>)
Brad Takairangi<\/a> (Glebe Dirty Reds)
Mason Teague<\/a> (Wakefield Trinity<\/a>)
David Tuariki (Melbourne Storm<\/a>)
Paul Ulberg<\/a> (Toulouse Olympique<\/a>)
Delahia Wigmore<\/a> (Penrith Panthers<\/a>)
Maui Winitana-Patelesio (New Zealand Warriors<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valentine Holmes will debut for the Cook Islands at the Rugby League World Cup, as the Aitu look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-622340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}