Kayal Roy Iro (born 20 February 2000), also known by the nickname KL, is a Cook Islands professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who plays as a and er for the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

and the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

at international level.

Background

Iro is the son of former player Kevin Iro and nephew of coach Tony Iro. He grew up in

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

where he played for the Arorangi Bears, then moved to Auckland at age 14 and attended

Mount Albert Grammar School Mount Albert Grammar School, commonly known as MAGS, is a co-educational state secondary school in Mount Albert in Auckland, New Zealand. It teaches students in year levels 9 to 13. , Mount Albert Grammar School is the second largest school in N ...

Playing career

New Zealand Warriors

In 2019, Iro played for the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

under 20s, before moving to the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

Newcastle Knights

On 12 November 2019, Iro signed a one-year under 20s contract with the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

In round 24 of the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season was the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest ...

, Iro made his first grade debut for Cronulla in their 16-0 victory over

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. Iro won the

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

player of the year for the 2022 NSW Cup season while playing for the

Newtown Jets The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, New South Wales, Newtown, a suburb of Inner West (Sydney), Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSW Cup competition, having left the top grade after t ...

, the reserve grade affiliate of the Sharks. On 25 July 2024, it was announced that Iro had re-signed with the Cronulla club on a two-year extension until the end of the 2026 season. Iro played 23 games for Cronulla in the

2024 NRL season The 2024 NRL season was the 117th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 27th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season consisted of 27 competition rounds, followed by a finals series contested by the top eight ...

as the club finished 4th on the table and qualified for the finals. Iro played in all three of Cronulla's finals matches including their preliminary final loss against Penrith. In round 2 of the

2025 NRL season The 2025 NRL season is the 118th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 28th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The regular season will be followed by a finals series contested by the top eight teams on the competiti ...

, Iro scored two tries for Cronulla in their 36-12 victory over

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

International

Iro represented the in the

2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League membe ...

, scoring two tries in a 30–7 victory against . He made his full international début in the 66–6 win over

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

on 21 June 2019 at .

Statistics

NRL

: ''*denotes season competing''

International

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks profileNew Zealand Warriors profileCook Islands profile
2000 births Living people Cook Island expatriate rugby league players Cook Island expatriate sportspeople in Australia Cook Island rugby league players Cook Islands national rugby league team players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players New Zealand expatriate rugby league players in Australia People educated at Mount Albert Grammar School People from Rarotonga Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Leeds {{CookIslands-rugbyleague-bio-stub