{"id":164078,"date":"2025-09-23T18:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/164078\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:25:08","slug":"phil-gould-reacts-to-nrl-stars-reported-rugby-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/164078\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Gould reacts to NRL star\u2019s reported rugby return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rugby league personality Phil Gould has described Mark Nawaqanitawase\u2019s decision to leave the NRL as a \u201cterrible shame\u201d for the sport, with the former Wallabies winger reportedly returning to rugby union in a bid to play at the 2027 Men\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Michael Chammas has revealed that Nawaqanitawase has told the Sydney Roosters that he will be leaving the club after the 2026 NRL season. It\u2019s understood Nawaqanitawase will pursue a deal in either French or Japanese rugby.<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase is believed to be in the mix to play for Australia<\/a> during their 2025 Ashes Series against England<\/a> following a sensational campaign with the Tricolours, which saw the Paris Olympian top the try-scoring charts at the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Sharks coach John Plumtree reveals his plans for his Springbok contingent<\/p>\n

\"VideoSharks coach John Plumtree reveals his plans for his Springbok contingent<\/p>\n

Ahead of the NRL preliminary finals, the Rugby League Players Association revealed their Dream Team for the 2025 season, with Nawaqanitawase selected on one wing. Nawaqanitawase was also named the 2025 Players\u2019 Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii left the Roosters after the 2024 NRL season, and Rugby Australia\u2019s multi-million dollar man has gone on to star at both Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> and Test level, which included a Player of the Match performance on debut for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

As Gould explained when told about Nawaqanitawase\u2019s reported decision to head back to the 15-player game, \u201cIt seems to me we\u2019ve heard this song before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same thing with Suaalii,\u201d Gould said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 Six Tackles with Gus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a loss. Anyway, that\u2019s the modern world, mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they\u2019ve bought. They\u2019ve bought a good player but they\u2019ve bought 12 months of publicity now. It\u2019s a good investment. They got 12 months of publicity out of Suaalii before he went \u2013 how\u2019s he gone in the rugby? I haven\u2019t seen.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s a] terrible shame. What a sensation he\u2019s been\u2026 what an athlete, what a great player. It\u2019s sad for our game, I would\u2019ve liked to have seen him in our game long-term. Anyway, such is life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chammas has reported that Nawaqanitawase wants to play for the Wallabies at the 2027 World Cup on Australian soil, but that doesn\u2019t mean the winger will play for any of the nation\u2019s four Super Rugby Pacific sides.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been reported that Nawaqanitawase will look to sign a deal overseas. With Rugby Australia\u2019s Director of Performance, Peter Horne<\/a>, revealing a couple of months ago that \u201cthe Giteau Law\u2019s kind of redundant\u201d, Nawaqanitawase would still be eligible for Wallabies selection.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies are currently first on The Rugby Championship<\/a> ladder, having played four Tests so far against the Springboks and Los Pumas. With it all to play for in the final two rounds, the Wallabies will face the All Blacks<\/a> in Auckland<\/a> and Perth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby league personality Phil Gould has described Mark Nawaqanitawase\u2019s decision to leave the NRL as a \u201cterrible shame\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-164078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164078","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=164078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}