KL Iro aims to elevate the Cook Islands rugby league team ahead of the World Cup, seeking to include more players with Cook Islander heritage.
Cronulla centre KL Iro is on a mission to put his small Pacific nation of around 17,000 residents "on the map" at the Rugby League World Cup.
Iro is the highest-profile active player to have been raised in the Cook Islands, a self-governing associated state of New Zealand located between French Polynesia and American Samoa.
But many others have Cook Islander heritage, including Warriors fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Brisbane premiership winner Xavier Willison and retiring Canberra veteran Josh Papali'i.