{"id":50246,"date":"2025-08-07T11:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50246\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:19:07","slug":"catalans-continue-raid-on-nrl-as-dolphins-prospect-set-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50246\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalans continue raid on NRL as Dolphins prospect set to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Catalans Dragons have continued their recruitment drive down under, snapping up Dolphins prospect Josh Allen on a two-year deal starting in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old prop, who is yet to make a first-grade NRL appearance, will make the move to Perpignan after spending recent seasons developing in Australia\u2019s second-tier competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Allen is the son of former Brisbane and London Broncos forward Gavin Allen, who played in Super League nearly three decades ago. Now, his son will follow in his footsteps, crossing hemispheres for a fresh challenge in the south of France.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/rabbitoh-offerred-staggering-rugby-360-contract\/a5a628a2bb338a7456d29131\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rabbitoh offered staggering Rugby 360 contract<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018One of the best front-rowers in Super League\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Though he has not cracked the NRL top grade yet, Allen has built a solid reputation in the Queensland and New South Wales Cups, chalking up 50 appearances and six tries while turning out for Northern Pride, Canberra\u2019s reserves, and the Dolphins&#8217; second string.<\/p>\n<p>Dragons head coach Joel Tomkins is backing the towering forward, who stands at 6ft 4in and weighs in at 112kg, to make a real impact in Super League. \u201cHe has the potential to be one of the best front-rowers in Super League,\u201d Tomkins said.<\/p>\n<p>Allen, a former amateur boxer, is under no illusions about the step up, but is eager to embrace it: \u201cI\u2019m excited for the opportunity to be able to pursue a career with Catalans,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a dream and a challenge I\u2019m keen to take on. I\u2019m looking forward to getting stuck into pre-season and proving myself in the Super League arena.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catalans Dragons have continued their recruitment drive down under, snapping up Dolphins prospect Josh Allen on a two-year&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-50246","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\/50246","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=50246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}