drag out and eventually fall over<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe had contracting deadlines missed on multiple occasions, which is just bad business,\u201d Crichton\u2019s manager David Rawlings told this masthead at the time. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t a money grab. He was keen to go. He thought he could help. I feel for the Western Force. They would have got themselves a potential world-class No.12.\u201d<\/p>\n
Signing on with a Super Rugby side for 2027 could pave the way for Crichton to be called into the Wallabies squad for the 2026 spring tour, just weeks after finishing up in the NRL, as former Roosters Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii did this time last year.<\/p>\n
But a tilt at making the Wallabies\u2019 World Cup squad, via a domestic path, would likely require Crichton to play for less money than he could earn in Japan. Informed sources said he would be looking at around $500-600,000 a year in Australian rugby.<\/p>\n
Whether RA makes a play for Crichton remains to be seen, but the Wallabies don\u2019t have great depth in the midfield positions.<\/p>\n
John Eales Medal winner Len Ikitau and Hunter Paisami are the leading inside centre options, with Suaalii seemingly locked in at No.13. But there remains healthy debate in rugby circles about whether Suaalii is better suited to playing on the wing or at fullback.<\/p>\n
Crichton is determined to make a call on his future before the NRL season kicks off next March. Should he pursue rugby, he would most likely rule himself out of contention for the Kangaroos\u2019 own World Cup in Australia at the end of next year.<\/p>\n
There is zero interest in rebel competition R360, while England remains an outside option, especially because his wife, Chloe, who will welcome the couple\u2019s first child in March, is from Manchester.<\/p>\n
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Another Roosters player, Mark Nawaqanitawase, will return to rugby at the end of next season, but has already proven himself in the Wallabies jersey, and any decision to pursue the riches in Japan or French rugby would not impact his own Cup chances.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Perth Bears have been rejected by Jayden Campbell, with the playmaker set to ink an extension that will keep him on the Gold Coast until the end of 2030.<\/p>\n
It emerged this week that the Bears had tabled Campbell a five-year, $6m offer<\/a> to be one of the faces of the new franchise.<\/p>\nBut Campbell, 25, will stay put at the Titans, who confirmed on Friday Queensland Origin forward Beau Fermor had signed a new three-year deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crichton\u2019s management is likely to sit down with Rugby Australia officials in the next fortnight, once the Wallabies\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299843","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=299843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}