Tawera Nikau’s son joins North Wales Crusaders
North Wales Crusaders have announced that Tyme Nikau, son of former NRL and Super League star Tawera Nikau, will join the club until the end of the season.
The centre featured for the Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Warriors development squads earlier in his career, but has most recently been playing his rugby for the Burri Burri Bulldogs in the Newcastle Rugby League division.
He also had a two-season stint with the Maitland Pickers in the same competition prior to linking up with the Bulldogs.
Nikau is due to arrive in the UK on March 11 and will link up with his new team-mates straight away. He could make his Crusaders debut in their Betfred League one clash with Barrow Raiders on March 21.
His father, Tawera Nikau, made 338 career appearances, with just under half coming for the Castelford Tigers.
The New Zealand international forward also appeared for Cronulla, Melbourne and Warrington before retiring from the sport in 2001.
On linking up with the Crusaders, Nikau said: “I’ve been lucky enough to experience the sport as a young fella with my old man playing over there,” Nikau said.
“I think it’s always appealed to me to go and play over there and see how I would go. Since I’ve been talking to the club, I’ve done my research and I’ve been following how the team’s been doing so far.
“I was gutted to see that the boys went down against Hunslet last weekend, but I hope we can get our League 1 campaign off to a good start against London.
“I’ve had a chat with Anthony Murray and it seems like he’s been building the team in a really good way so I’m hoping I can help contribute to that momentum.”
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