{"id":136477,"date":"2025-09-12T00:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136477\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T00:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:47:09","slug":"joe-schmidt-says-ras-door-always-open-for-mark-nawaqanitawase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136477\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Schmidt says RA’s door always open for Mark Nawaqanitawase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase\u2019s red-hot form in the NRL has earned the admiration of Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies coach, saying the door remains open for the winger to return to the 15-man game.<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase has had NRL pundits gushing with praise since landing at the Sydney Roosters after his Olympic Games exploits with the Australian sevens team last year.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old has turned heads with several eye-catching plays in his first full season in the NRL and finished the regular campaign with 23 tries in 22 games.<\/p>\n

Spoken of as an option for the Kangaroos\u2019 Ashes tour to England<\/a> this year, Nawaqanitawase will be free to speak to rival clubs \u2013 and codes \u2013 as soon as November 1 when he enters the final 12 months of his Roosters contract.<\/p>\n

The lure of playing in the 2027 Rugby World Cup<\/a> in Australia<\/a> is sure to carry considerable weight, but Schmidt concedes Roosters coach Trent Robinson won\u2019t let the winger go without a fight.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Australia <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Argentina <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Mark in passing a couple of weeks ago and he certainly looked in good shape,\u201d Schmidt said ahead of Saturday\u2019s Rugby Championship<\/a> clash with Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen him score a couple of very impressive tries. He loves getting in at the corner and quite acrobatically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a few guys floating around that have been in the rugby union production line who I don\u2019t think Rugby Australia has closed the door on either.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of that rests in Mark\u2019s court as to what he does next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to Trent about it, and I\u2019m not sure Trent is looking to let him go at this stage either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt said regardless of Nawaqanitawase\u2019s next steps, the Wallabies, who have named Max Jorgensen<\/a> and Corey Toole<\/a> on the wings to face Argentina<\/a> in Sydney this weekend, are well stocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we discount anyone in terms of players who have either been in the gold jersey previously or have come through the school system and potentially would like to be back involved with rugby union,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much talent amongst some of those players, and his (Nawaqanitawase\u2019s) athleticism in the air is not too different from Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have athletes like that, it\u2019s always something that would add value.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, we\u2019ve got guys who\u2019ve stayed invested in rugby union, and Max Jorgensen has been outstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorey Toole has come through, and his two Tests have been really impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Potter, before he got injured, was playing really well, and Dylan Pietsch<\/a> brings a real physical edge out wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few wingers that have been really good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Nawaqanitawase\u2019s red-hot form in the NRL has earned the admiration of Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies coach, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-136477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}