{"id":409017,"date":"2026-01-12T21:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409017\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:34:16","slug":"wests-tigers-recruit-kai-pearce-paul-wants-to-follow-in-footsteps-of-english-league-greats-at-the-club-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409017\/","title":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers recruit Kai Pearce-Paul wants to follow in footsteps of English league greats at the club"},"content":{"rendered":"

He also spoke last year to Ellis, who he hopes to emulate after describing him as a \u201ctough, old-school Pommy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Like Ellis, Pearce-Paul is a towering back-rower, who, after winning a Super League title in 2023, served his NRL apprenticeship at Newcastle, making 44 appearances, which was enough to earn him selection in the England team for the recent Ashes series.<\/p>\n

While Australia won 3-0, Pearce-Paul was one of the few members of the home team to hold his own, averaging 84 attacking metres and 33 tackles a game in the three Tests.<\/p>\n

\"Kai<\/p>\n

Kai Pearce-Paul arrives at Wests Tigers on the back of a strong Ashes series for England.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The series result was a reality check, but at least now England\u2019s players know the standard they will need to reach to have any hope at this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an eye-opener,\u201d Pearce-Paul said of the Ashes. \u201cYou just can\u2019t give the Aussies a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best players in the world and the best league in the world, and it can be an even battle, and you mess up one little thing and you\u2019ve got players like Nathan Cleary and [Cameron] Munster, they\u2019ll just capitalise on it and finish those tries off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that struck us by surprise, especially in that first game with [Reece] Walsh. We gave him an inch and he just took a mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

International duties completed, Pearce-Paul has since been settling in at the Tigers, after signing a three-year deal midway through last season.<\/p>\n

He insists he left the Knights on good terms \u2013 \u201cthere\u2019s no hard feelings there at all\u201d \u2013 but was immediately attracted by the sales pitch from Tigers coach Benji Marshall.<\/p>\n

\u201cBenji came in and showed real interest,\u201d he said. \u201cHe made it very clear what he wanted me to bring for this team, and for me, it was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was one chat on the phone and then one chat in person, and then I was sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

No sooner had the 24-year-old started training with the Tigers than they became embroiled in a boardroom drama, culminating in the departure of chief executive Shane Richardson.<\/a><\/p>\n

But despite critics labelling the club a \u201cbasket case\u201d, Pearce-Paul said the controversy had no impact on the players and coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just sort of blocked out that noise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it was a bit of an elephant in the room. You know, everyone\u2019s on social media, and you\u2019re seeing it everywhere, but we just all decided let\u2019s just not let it bother us. Let\u2019s just carry on focusing on us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, whatever happens up there, it doesn\u2019t change how we train or change our goal and how we want to play this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal, after finishing 13th last season, is to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2011. After watching the Tigers play what he described as \u201csome champagne rugby\u201d in 2025, Pearce-Paul believes the play-offs are a realistic ambition.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot just the top eight, we want to be even higher than that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve set high standards for ourselves this year, and we want to be the best team we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He also spoke last year to Ellis, who he hopes to emulate after describing him as a \u201ctough,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-409017","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\/409017","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=409017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}