{"id":534858,"date":"2026-03-12T05:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534858\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:21:10","slug":"tigers-hopeful-heamasi-makasini-stays-with-nrl-club-amid-talk-of-rugby-union-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534858\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers hopeful Heamasi Makasini stays with NRL club amid talk of rugby union switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall says the club is desperate to keep Heamasi Makasini after the teenage star admitted an interest in returning to rugby union.<\/p>\n

Makasini has been compared to late All Blacks great Jonah Lomu, who took international rugby by storm in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old represented Australia in rugby at the junior level but signed with Wests Tigers on a three-year deal in 2024.<\/p>\n

He will play in the centres in the Tigers’ season-opening match against North Queensland at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Heamasi<\/p>\n

Heamasi Makasini (right) scored in his NRL debut last season. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)<\/p>\n

Makasini, who scored in his NRL debut in the final round last year, told reporters earlier this week he was open to a switch to rugby during his professional career.<\/p>\n

Marshall said the Tigers would do everything possible to keep Makasini beyond the end of the 2027 season when his contract expires.<\/p>\n

“I don’t talk about recruiting publicly, but what I will say is Heamasi is really important to us,” Marshall said.<\/p>\n

“And we’ll prioritise whatever we need to do to make sure he stays here.<\/p>\n

“But rugby, for me, is not a concern at the moment. All I’m worried about is he’s still got two more years here under contract [and] we need to get the best out of him.”<\/p>\n

Makasini impressed for Wests Tigers during the preseason with his physicality in attack.<\/p>\n

\"Jonah<\/p>\n

Jonah Lomu made his presence felt during his Test career with the All Blacks. (Getty Images: Ross Land)<\/p>\n

His displays triggered comparisons to the legendary Lomu, who announced himself in Test rugby with a series of devastating performances at the 1995 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

“If you look at the 1995 World Cup, the highlights look the same. That’s why it’s crazy,” Marshall said.<\/p>\n

“He’s had some comparisons to some great players, but what I like is he doesn’t let that affect his mindset and the way he is.<\/p>\n

“But again, we’ve seen a couple of things in trials. It’s not the same when you play an NRL game.”<\/p>\n

Wests Tigers had the bye in the first round.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys opened their season with a 28-18 loss to Newcastle in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall says the club is desperate to keep Heamasi Makasini after the teenage star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,9421,163,263821,41116,761,762,26673,158,159,85,4515],"class_list":["post-534858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benji-marshall","tag-cowboys","tag-heamasi-makasini","tag-jonah-lomu","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-north-queensland","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-wests-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534858","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=534858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}