Sydney Roosters star Angus Crichton will switch codes at the end of the 2026 NRL season in an effort to play for the Wallabies at next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old back-rower will reportedly leave the Sydney Roosters at the conclusion of the club\u2019s upcoming NRL campaign after signing a deal with Rugby Australia and Super Rugby franchise the New South Wales Waratahs.<\/p>\n
The agreement will reportedly see him play in Australia for at least a year, with an option to extend that to a second season in 2028. The Associated Press reports he is also fielding offers to move overseas and play in either Europe or Japan, where the sport is more lucrative.<\/p>\n
He joins a fellow Rooster, winger Mark Nawaqanitawase, who was last year\u2019s top NRL tryscorer, in seeing out 2026 in the NRL before making the switch.<\/p>\n
Both are following in the footsteps of high profile former Roosters star Joseph-Aukuso Sua\u2019ali\u2019i, who left the club following the 2024 NRL season to play for the Wallabies and Waratahs. He now has 14 caps for Australia.<\/p>\n
Like Sua\u2019ali\u2019i, Crichton has represented NSW at State of Origin level, making 17 appearances for the Blues between 2018 and 2025.<\/p>\n
He has also played 11 Tests for the Kangaroos, and was a member of the Australian squad that beat England 3-0 in last year\u2019s rugby league Ashes series.<\/p>\n
Crichton played rugby union at a junior level, representing The Scots College in Sydney, and was picked for the Australian Schoolboys. He eventually became a professional league player at just 18 years old, first for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and then for the Roosters, with whom he won a premiership in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to challenge himself to break through, probably sooner than we thought he would in rugby, and he\u2019s done really well,\u201d Ben Whitaker, who was high performance manager at the ARU at the time, said in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould he have made a really good rugby player? For sure. We talked about – you go away in those formative years, 18-21, when you really learn the game. If you\u2019re committed and in a good system and program, you learn the game, particularly as a ball-running back rower who needs to develop other skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pitched that to him, and I don\u2019t know if that weighed into his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crichton been very open, for years, about his interest in a code switch. Negotiations with the Western Force advanced quite far in 2023 before falling through.<\/p>\n
Nawaqanitawase has more experience in union, having played 58 games for the Waratahs and 11 for the Wallabies before he switched to league in 2024.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s expected to go to Japan after this NRL season.<\/p>\n
The Roosters are no stranger to code switchers – they famously brought New Zealand international Sonny Bill Williams back from union for the 2013 and 2014 NRL seasons, and he helped them win the premiership in his first year.<\/p>\n
Williams then had a second, very brief stint with the Chooks at the tail end of his footy career in 2020. He ultimately played 50 games for the Roosters, and 58 Tests for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n