{"id":319266,"date":"2025-11-30T21:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319266\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T21:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:00:15","slug":"lote-tuqiri-implores-zac-lomax-to-consider-wallabies-world-cup-bid-lomax-future-r360-postponed-rugby-union-eels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319266\/","title":{"rendered":"Lote Tuqiri implores Zac Lomax to consider Wallabies World Cup bid, Lomax future, R360 postponed, rugby union, Eels"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former dual code star has urged Zac Lomax to put his hat in the ring for the Wallabies\u2019 2027 World Cup squad in the wake of R360\u2019s postponement. <\/p>\n

Lomax was set to sign a deal with the rebel league and was granted a shock early release from his Eels contract to do so.<\/p>\n

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However, the projected start of the R360 competition has fallen over. Instead of a late 2026 beginning, the start date has been pushed back to 2028.<\/p>\n

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That leaves Lomax in limbo. Due to the terms of his exit from Parramatta, he is unable to sign with another NRL team until 2028.<\/p>\n

His agent Clinton Schifcofske implied that despite the R360 setback, Lomax will likely explore opportunities outside of rugby league.<\/p>\n

\u201cZac has options. Zac has always been interested in other things so he can pick and choose now,\u201d Schifcoske said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no shortage of interest. We\u2019ll make a final decision shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lomax could follow the path of several ex-NRL stars and chase a career in combat sports, former dual international Lote Tuqiri believes a switch to the 15-man code should be Lomax\u2019s next move.<\/p>\n

Tuqiri is considered one of the more successful dual code stars of all time having played 67 Tests for the Wallabies after making the switch. <\/p>\n

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He believes Lomax\u2019s game is tailor-made for rugby union.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wallabies would look at him, for sure. Not too many blokes in the current squad have put up their hands. There are spots available,\u201d Tuqiri told Code Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLomax would be successful in rugby union. He is great under the high ball, he\u2019s one of the best exponents in rugby league, he is a goal kicker, a big body, he\u2019s aggressive and has a kicking game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Code Sports have reported that Lomax wouldn\u2019t have quit the Eels unless he had a contract sorted with a club for next season which is believed to be with a Japanese or French rugby franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should go chase the money overseas, come back for a Super Rugby season and then have a crack at the World Cup,\u201d Tuqiri continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is chasing deals in France or Japan but Lomax is a world-class athlete so he will find somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely the Wallabies wouldn\u2019t be overly content with their current best 15 two years out from the home World Cup.<\/p>\n

While there were some promising and pleasing signs during the Lions\u2019 recent tour of Australia, the Wallabies\u2019 2025 campaign ended with a whimper, losing all four games of their European Tour – the first touring team from Australia to do that in 67 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former dual code star has urged Zac Lomax to put his hat in the ring for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,57550,763,54318,761,762,158,677,46,2633,179992,85,4440,3439],"class_list":["post-319266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-final-decision","tag-fox-league","tag-inaugural-season","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-rugby-union","tag-sexton-heading","tag-sports","tag-toby-sexton","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319266","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=319266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}