{"id":468434,"date":"2026-02-09T12:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468434\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T12:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:01:11","slug":"mark-nawaqanitawases-new-club-confirmed-after-nrl-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468434\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Nawaqanitawase&#8217;s new club confirmed after NRL exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/mark-nawaqanitawase\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> will join <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/japan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> Rugby League One division one leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/saitama-wild-knights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saitama Wild Knights<\/a> at the end of the upcoming NRL season. <\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old is entering his third and final season with the Sydney Roosters, having switched codes in 2024, and has gone on to earn three caps for the Kangaroos in that time. <\/p>\n<p>He will make the move to Japan in December ahead of the 2026\/27 season, which leaves the door open to represent Australia in the Rugby League World Cup at the end of the year, with the reigning champions Australia being one of the host countries. <\/p>\n<p>The return to rugby union will give him a year to work his way back into the Wallabies squad, for whom he has won 11 caps, ahead of the 2027 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> on Australian soil, following in the footsteps of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/carter-gordon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carter Gordon<\/a>, who has already returned to rugby union following a stint with the\tGold Coast Titans in the NRL. <\/p>\n<p>Nawaqanitawase will join a Wild Knights side that are currently unbeaten in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/japan-rugby-league-one\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan Rugby League One<\/a> this season, and will join a squad that already has some international class with South African World Cup winners <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/damian-de-allende\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Damian de Allende<\/a> and Lood de Jager. <\/p>\n<p>Fixture<\/p>\n<p>Japan Rugby League One<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/19567.png.webp.png\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> Saitama Wild Knights <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5211.png.webp.png\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> Toyota Verblitz <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/saitama-wild-knights-vs-toyota-verblitz\/?g=948789\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honour to join the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights from the 2026-27 season,\u201d Nawaqanitawase said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are a very strong team that has experienced a lot of success, and it is a club which carries a rich history. I am looking forward to becoming part of the Wild Knights and I am looking forward to what we can build together in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Nawaqanitawase will be gearing towards his final season in the NRL, which begins on March 6 for the Roosters against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand<\/a> Warriors, a week before facing rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia winger Mark Nawaqanitawase will join Japan Rugby League One division one leaders Saitama Wild Knights at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-468434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468434","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=468434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}