{"id":293437,"date":"2025-11-18T21:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/293437\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:30:10","slug":"r360-adds-roosters-comeback-hero-to-nrl-hit-list-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/293437\/","title":{"rendered":"R360 adds Roosters\u2019 comeback hero to NRL hit list – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rebel rugby competition R360 has continued adding to its NRL<\/a> hit list, eyeing yet another rugby league gun to join their breakaway organisation.<\/p>\n

R360 have now reportedly added Sydney Roosters<\/a> centre Billy Smith<\/a> to its growing list of targets as it continues its aggressive push to lure NRL<\/a> talent to the rival code.<\/p>\n

According to Wide World of Sports, Smith is the next name on R360’s recruitment radar following reports that Zac Lomax<\/a> is \u201cas good as signed,\u201d while Ryan Papenhuyzen<\/a> and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck<\/a> are also set to make the switch.<\/p>\n

Sources have revealed that Smith’s resilience and class have made him an attractive prospect after overcoming several serious knee injuries to cement his place in the Roosters’ backline.<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 23: Billy Smith playing in the NRL match between Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters at CommBank Stadium, on August 23, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Joshua Davis\/Zero Digital Sports)<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Smith remains contracted to the Roosters until the end of 2027, but the emerging competition has already shown its willingness to splash cash, with Lomax walking away from a four-year, $2.8 million deal to join R360 despite the NRL’s threat of a 10-year ban.<\/p>\n

Smith’s departure would deal another blow to the Roosters, who have already been hit hard by rugby union poaching in recent years.<\/p>\n

Star centres Joseph Manu<\/a> and Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i have both defected to the 15-man code, while Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a>\u00a0 is set to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Angus Crichton<\/a> has also been linked with rugby switch in recent months.<\/p>\n

No formal approach has yet been made to Smith, but sources suggest R360’s pursuit is intensifying, and with NRL<\/a> clubs unable to match the lucrative offers on the table, the code war shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rebel rugby competition R360 has continued adding to its NRL hit list, eyeing yet another rugby league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-293437","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\/293437","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=293437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}