NRL 2023: Meet Calvin Harris-Tavita, New Zealand rugby league’s “next Benji Marshall”
He’s the young rugby league star already turning heads, with one experienced scout saying he’s got a better step than the great Benji Marshall.
Meet the Kiwi schoolboy sensation who has been labelled “the next Benji Marshall” — with a better sidestep — by one of New Zealand rugby league’s most respected voices.
Calvin Harris-Tavita is the kid brother of recently departed Warriors playmaker Chanel, and by the looks of things it won’t be long before this 13-year-old is carving out his own NRL career.
With Chanel, still only 23, ready to take a break from the NRL after representing Samoa at the World Cup, his younger brother gave league loving locals in Auckland a glimpse of the future last weekend.
With some 350 players taking part in the Pasifika Youth Cup, Harris-Tavita was the standout for the Maori team in the youngest division.
Producing a scintillating two-try performance in the under 13s grand final, including the match winner right on fulltime, he was also crowned player of the tournament.
That led respected New Zealand Maori rugby league chairman John Devonshire to deliver some huge praise.
WATCH HARRIS-TAVITA’S HIGHLIGHTS ABOVE
“He is the next Benji Marshall to be honest,” Devonshire said.
“He is that good.
“I haven’t seen someone as exciting as he is for many, many years.
“Especially as a seven (a halfback).”
It’s a fair rap when you consider Devonshire was one of the Warriors’ inaugural talent scouts under John Monie in the 1990s.
So he has seen first-hand the emergence of the absolute best of the best New Zealand has had to offer over the years.
From Stacey Jones to Benji, Shaun Johnson to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and more recently Joey Manu.
Asked if he rates young Harris-Tavita’s step as good as Benji’s, Devonshire was dead serious:
“Better. And not being disrespectful to Benji, but he tackled better too.”
With rugby league’s continued growth among the Pacific Nations on show at the World Cup, it paints a positive picture of the game’s development in New Zealand.
Harris-Tavita also hails from a proud rugby league family.
While his elder brother has starred more recently, both his grand fathers, Ray Harris and George Tavita, were very good players in their day, as was father Jason.
But while Devonshire has no doubt NRL clubs will soon be lining up for the next generation, he also reminded everyone of the ever-present danger that exists for rugby league in New Zealand.
“They will be lining up behind the rugby clubs,” Devonshire explained, when asked if he expected NRL clubs to come hunting the youngster sooner rather than later.
“The lure of the All Black jersey is always there.
“You’ve got to understand, over here the school system is about two out of 10 for rugby league.
“In Australia it is 11.
“Rugby league is a bad word at the bigger public schools.
“But the family will do what is right for him.
“He has still got his education and we have to think about that as well. But he should write his ticket now. There will be agents lining up for him.”
As for the other big question relating to rugby league in New Zealand, is the NRL ready for a second NZ team, Devonshire delivered a dose of reality: “Not at the moment.
“We don’t have the playing depth.
“You’ve got to build the foundations.
“You just can’t go and pluck them all out and think you are going to be competitive. You have got to build a culture.
“There has to be an investment.”
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