{"id":353606,"date":"2025-12-17T09:38:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353606\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:38:27","slug":"origin-star-on-the-move-after-selection-squeeze-at-sydney-roosters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353606\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin star on the move after selection squeeze at Sydney Roosters"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t just Hugo Savala in the halves.<\/p>\n

NSW State of Origin utility Connor Watson is the latest Roosters<\/a> star to feel the selection squeeze ahead of 2026 NRL season.<\/p>\n

Following the off-season arrival of incumbent NSW Blues rake Reece Robson on a four-year deal, and the emergence of exciting Roosters Academy and Toa Samoa hooker Benaiah Ioelu, 29-year-old Watson knows his days in the Tri Colours number nine jersey are likely over and appears set for a permanent move to lock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll (Robson) be the nine,\u201d Watson told NRL.com<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Roosters young gun Hugo Savala confirms future after DCE arrival<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey signed him to be a hooker and my best and favourite position is 13, I\u2019ve always said that I\u2019m happy to do whatever for the team whether it\u2019s come off the bench or play any position, I\u2019ll always do that but 13 is the goal for me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A veteran of 167 NRL games and five Origin appearances, Watson said he\u2019s confident the positional switch will unlock his best football in 2026, particularly with the arrival of champion halfback Daly Cherry-Evans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been good having Daly around,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done everything in the game, he\u2019s had so much experience, so to have a guy like that come in has been awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing with these guys week in, week out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Roosters open their 2026 NRL campaign against the Warriors in Auckland on Friday, March 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It isn\u2019t just Hugo Savala in the halves. NSW State of Origin utility Connor Watson is the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-353606","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\/353606","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=353606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}