{"id":669280,"date":"2026-05-14T00:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T00:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:12:12","slug":"the-rugby-prodigy-the-png-chiefs-are-eager-to-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669280\/","title":{"rendered":"The rugby prodigy the PNG Chiefs are eager to sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian rugby is staring down the barrel of a costly defection, with the PNG Chiefs<\/a> setting their sights firmly on 19-year-old Reds sensation Treyvon Pritchard, and they want his older brother, too.<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the NRL’s 19th team held talks with both Pritchard brothers in Brisbane on Tuesday, pitching Treyvon and 21-year-old Brumbies centre Kadin on becoming two of the foundation pieces of the Chiefs’ inaugural 2028 roster.<\/p>\n

It’s a calculated move by the club. With the bulk of the NRL<\/a> player market locked away until November 1, when players off-contract in 2027 can begin negotiating with rival clubs, the Chiefs have turned their gaze toward rugby union, where no such embargo exists.<\/p>\n

Treyvon has been compared to Newcastle Knights<\/a> superstar Kalyn Ponga<\/a>, who walked the same corridors at Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane eleven years prior.<\/p>\n

He debuted for the Reds in a friendly last year while sitting his year 12 exams, and was fast-tracked straight into Queensland’s senior setup this season, and made his Super Rugby Pacific bow in March.<\/p>\n

Some pundits have already floated his name as a Wallabies bolter for this year.<\/p>\n

Incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss, who has carefully managed Pritchard’s introduction, starting him from the bench in all but one game, has made no secret of his admiration this year.<\/p>\n

“Treyvon is very savvy. He is no one-trick pony,” Kiss said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“He is a beautifully balanced young player. Very quick, smart and confident. He can kick off both feet, step off both feet, and his speed off the mark is brilliant.<\/p>\n

“He has the one thing you can’t coach, and that’s speed.”<\/p>\n

With the 2027 Rugby World Cup on home soil looming, the clock is ticking on both sides.<\/p>\n

The NRL’s interest in Pritchard is nothing new, with Queensland clubs having already been sniffing around him for years.<\/p>\n

With dazzling highlight reels from school rugby and his starring turns for Australian Under-18s sides in both XVs and sevens, he torched New Zealand’s under-18s twice last year, winning 81-48 in Canberra and 55-33 in the second Test.<\/p>\n

Pritchard can play fullback, wing and centre, and did so at a level that had scouts reaching for their phones.<\/p>\n

Treyvon played rugby league until he was 15 years old, and made the switch to Union because of his love for the Reds.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs are dangling a $300,000 tax-free PNG salary that would land roughly the same take-home pay as a $500,000 rugby contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian rugby is staring down the barrel of a costly defection, with the PNG Chiefs setting their sights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-669280","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\/669280","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=669280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}