{"id":172016,"date":"2025-09-27T04:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/172016\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T04:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:57:07","slug":"nawaqanitawase-reveals-why-he-quit-nrl-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/172016\/","title":{"rendered":"Nawaqanitawase reveals why he quit NRL – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Roosters<\/a> were handed a brutal blow earlier this week, when Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> informed the club of his intention to depart the NRL<\/a> at the end of his contract.<\/p>\n

Currently locked in at Bondi until the end of 2026, the star winger has revealed why he has decided to return to rugby union following his NRL<\/a> stint.<\/p>\n

While many believe the 2027 Rugby World Cup may have played a role in his decision to switch codes, Nawaqanitawase has admitted there are a few things he misses about playing rugby.<\/p>\n

“I love the game of union,” Nawaqanitawase told ABC Pacific.<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of things that I miss.”<\/p>\n

He said he feels restricted in rugby league, preferring the freedom that comes with union.<\/p>\n

“I guess the freedom [is something I miss],” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you come to league, I guess you’re kind of stuck to one side; it’s very structured.<\/p>\n

“So in that sense, I miss that part where I could roam and get up to doing different things on any side.”<\/p>\n

The speedy outside back went on to highlight the travel opportunities that come with union, which has played a huge role in his decision to return to union.<\/p>\n

“The cool thing about union is you can travel the world,\u201d Nawaqanitawase said.<\/p>\n

“Travelling the world and just meeting different cultures and different people \u2026 is an experience I wish all people could experience.”<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase will return to union in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sydney Roosters were handed a brutal blow earlier this week, when Mark Nawaqanitawase informed the club of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-172016","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\/172016","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=172016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}