{"id":230451,"date":"2025-10-21T17:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230451\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:39:12","slug":"tabuai-fidow-makes-huge-call-on-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230451\/","title":{"rendered":"Tabuai-Fidow makes huge call on 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow will join rugby league’s Pacific revolution, telling a throng of Samoan fans he will play for them rather than Australia at next year’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

At the centre of an eligibility tug of war for most of this year, Tabuai-Fidow was ruled out of end-of-season Tests when he injured his knee in the final round.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

The Queensland State of Origin star made his Test debut for Samoa in the 2022 World Cup, before representing Australia for the past two years.<\/p>\n

He was likely to play for Samoa this year before injury struck, where Tabuai-Fidow would have joined Payne Haas in switching allegiances from the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

But the 24-year-old confirmed his return to Samoan blue at a fan day on Thursday, drawing cheers from the close to 10,000 people at the team’s Brisbane fan day.<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely huge, it’s been in the pipeline for quite some time,” Samoa coach Ben Gardiner told AAP.<\/p>\n

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow of the Dolphins.\u00a0Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“To be able to have the opportunity like this today to make a huge announcement leading into next year’s World Cup is pretty exciting for us.”<\/p>\n

Tabuai-Fidow’s call comes with Samoa already fielding six current State of Origin players in Sunday’s Pacific Cup blockbuster against Tonga.<\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton is also set to return to their backline for next year’s World Cup, while Taylan May has also been ruled out of this year’s Pacific Cup with injury.<\/p>\n

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui is also yet to decide who he will play for at the World Cup, after opting to go on this year’s Kangaroos tour with the Australians.<\/p>\n

Tabuai-Fidow could likely wear the No.1 jersey in next year’s tournament, depending on if Roger Tuivasa-Sheck leaves for rugby.<\/p>\n

“It boosts the team, and it inspires the team to know there is another elite player coming to join us,” Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

“It adds a different dynamic to the team. He adds speed and another real big game breaker for us.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking at this week and this tournament first. But we’re making no secret that we’re working our way towards the World Cup in 2026.”<\/p>\n

The Tabuai-Fidow news came as Samoan officials sought an exemption from the NRL to have hooker Jazz Tevaga play at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Tevaga was one of three players placed in an 11-day concussion stand-down after suffering a head clash in the first half of last weekend’s 24-18 loss to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

It’s understood Samoan officials believe the hooker has not shown any concussion symptoms since leaving the field, and should be cleared to line up against Tonga.<\/p>\n

Samoa have called Melbourne second-rower Ativalu Lisati into their squad and onto the bench, with Jaydn Su’A missing Sunday’s clash through concussion.<\/p>\n

Tyrone May has also joined the squad as cover after playing halfback in Hull KR’s Super League grand-final win.<\/p>\n

His brother, Terrell, is also some chance of recovering from a hamstring injury in time to face Tonga, after being injured in the lead up to the loss to the Kiwis.<\/p>\n

In contrast to Samoa’s issues, Tonga have been able to name a full-strength squad for the clash, with no surprises after having the first week of the competition off.<\/p>\n

Melbourne prop Stefano Utoikamanu and Sydney Roosters centre Robert Toia are two of the notable debutants, with a record crowd for a Pacific Test expected.<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu, who has previously represented Samoa, will resume hostilities with Haas after the pair faced off in the NRL grand final.<\/p>\n

Toia had a breakout season for the Tricolours, winning the Dally M rookie of the year award and impressing on Queensland debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow will join rugby league’s Pacific revolution, telling a throng of Samoan fans he will play for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-230451","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\/230451","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=230451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}