{"id":634565,"date":"2026-04-27T18:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634565\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T18:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:11:23","slug":"nrl-news-2026-mark-nawaqanitawase-exit-from-sydney-roosters-press-conference-rugby-union-code-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634565\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Mark Nawaqanitawase exit from Sydney Roosters, press conference; rugby union code switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-code superstar Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> hasn’t officially ruled out a return to the NRL one day as he prepares to shift back to rugby union<\/a> in a bid to make the Wallabies World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase will end his three-year stint at the Roosters<\/a> when this season finishes before moving to Japan to join Saitama Wild Knights.<\/p>\n

The exciting outside back spoke to media in Bondi and did his best to dodge questions around future rep honours in both codes.<\/p>\n

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The 25-year-old has been part of discussions for a NSW Blues debut and also joined a pre-season Origin camp.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase speaks to media.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

He told reporters he hasn’t received a call from coach Laurie Daley recently and while admitting it would be a dream to play for the Blues he defaulted frequently that his focus at the moment is on the Roosters.<\/p>\n

Asked about a spring campaign with the Wallabies too, Nawaqanitawase said it’s the “last thing on my mind”.<\/p>\n

Since switching to league though, he admits there’s been changes in his ability as an athlete.<\/p>\n

“I’m a different player to what I was two or three years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In a non-arrogant way, bigger, better and faster. I’ve grown up a little bit. My physical aspect means I can do a lot more and just (be better) defensively as well. I’ve learned so much that I know it will make me a better player wherever I go.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the curly question about whether he’d come back, nothing was ruled out.<\/p>\n

“Like I’ve said before, it could be an option, but it’s so far away so I don’t know,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase scores for the Roosters.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase also had emotions about leaving the Roosters, declaring “I’m going to miss everyone”.<\/p>\n

“Actually the last few weeks I’ve come to the realisation it’s going to be my last few days coming up. It’s been quite sad thinking about it because I love the club, I love the boys,” he said.<\/p>\n

Teammate Angus Crichton is also in a similar position, leaving the Roosters for rugby union at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The thoughts of saying goodbye to his teammates haven’t quite come to him yet.<\/p>\n

“Knowing it was probably going to be my last Anzac Day game I had a few thoughts but I’m not thinking big picture yet so I guess those emotions will probably come down the track later on,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cross-code superstar Mark Nawaqanitawase hasn’t officially ruled out a return to the NRL one day as he prepares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-634565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634565","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=634565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}