{"id":27246,"date":"2025-07-28T10:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/27246\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T10:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:32:11","slug":"tino-faasuamaleaui-responds-to-samoa-defection-reports-kangaroos-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/27246\/","title":{"rendered":"Tino Fa’asuamaleaui responds to Samoa defection reports, Kangaroos future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> claims he is yet to make a call on his international future, despite reports linking him with representing Samoa this year.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is regarded as one of the best forwards in the game, having already played six Tests for the Kangaroos<\/a> and featured 15 times at State of Origin level.<\/p>\n

However, his future with the Australian side remains unclear and heading into this year’s Ashes tour, the question was put to the man himself on Monday.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Slater weighs up No.7 switch after Storm gun’s injury<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gout Gout mark shattered by 16-year-old Japanese freak<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Joey’s plea as priority No.1 for new Knights CEO revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to media, the injured Titans captain shut down suggestions his mind was made up and left the door ajar to still feature in the green and gold jumper.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tino Faasuamaleaui\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I haven’t made a decision at all,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully I get to that point at the end of the year where I get to select.<\/p>\n

“Queensland is probably the pinnacle in my career so far and I think it always will be.<\/p>\n

“I love Queensland, but I’m just as passionate about my culture and the places that gave me an opportunity to grow up.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fact that an established player in the Kangaroos side would label Origin as the “pinnacle” of their career proves why the eligibility discussion has opened up again.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Maroons coach Billy Slater defended the rights of all players to pick which country they represent<\/a>, regardless of their Origin allegiances, pointing out the passion shown by the likes of Fa’asuamaleaui in the game’s toughest arena.<\/p>\n

The likes of Payne Haas and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow have also been linked with defecting from the Kangaroos<\/a>, which would leave a major hole in the squad heading into the three-game series against England beginning in late-October.<\/p>\n

Fa’asuamaleaui is sidelined with a knee injury and might not feature again this season for the Gold Coast, who look set to finish inside the NRL’s bottom-four.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tino Fa’asuamaleaui claims he is yet to make a call on his international future, despite reports linking him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-27246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27246","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=27246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}