{"id":69783,"date":"2025-08-15T08:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69783\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:34:11","slug":"payne-haas-samoa-defection-exciting-for-international-game-says-andrew-johns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69783\/","title":{"rendered":"Payne Haas’ Samoa defection ‘exciting’ for international game, says Andrew Johns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kangaroos<\/a> selector Andrew Johns<\/a> has endorsed Payne Haas’ defection to Samoa<\/a>, saying the switch will give the international calendar a massive boost.<\/p>\n

Reports on Thursday linked the NRL’s best prop to a change in eligibility, with 25-year-old Haas set to honour his Samoan roots and quit his place in the Kangaroos squad, where he’s recorded four caps since 2019.<\/p>\n

The Broncos star is of Samoan, Swiss and Filipino descent and will join the likes of Brian To’o, Stephen Crichton and Jarome Luai as Samoa pushes for its first World Cup trophy in 2026.<\/p>\n

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“I’m excited by it because I’m a big, big advocate for international football,” Johns told Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behaviour.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Haas playing for Australia against Samoa in 2023.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“We don’t need Australia constantly beating up on teams, and winning the World Cup every year.<\/p>\n

“So then you’re gonna have Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, and England, who have genuine chances of winning the World Cup.”<\/p>\n

Haas’ decision would clear him to be available for the post-season Pacific Championships, also ruling him out of Australia’s Ashes tour.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the next dominoes to drop for the Kangaroos could be Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, wo have also been earmarked to leave the Kangaroos for a Samoa jersey.<\/p>\n

Johns said if Fa’asuamaleaui joins Haas, the Kangaroos will have to adopt a different style of play under new coach Kevin Walters.<\/p>\n

“The other one now is Tino. What that does now, it totally changes the middles for Australia. Everything has to change,” Johns said.<\/p>\n

“So now you’re gonna have to use the ball, they’re gonna have to play with width, they’re gonna have to move the opposition team around.”<\/p>\n

The two-time premiership winner said he’s spoken with Walters about the make-up of the Australian squad and expects a “totally different brand of footy”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had some informal chats with Kevvie. And I think that’s the first thing you gotta work out.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to pick players and make them play a certain way because they’ve got their style of play which they’ve been playing since the age of 15-16.<\/p>\n

“It’s about working out how you’re gonna play and picking the players that can complement your style.<\/p>\n

“But it’s exciting for everyone, it’s exciting for Australia. You’re gonna see a totally different brand of footy.”<\/p>\n

The Kangaroos head to England for a three-Test Ashes series in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kangaroos selector Andrew Johns has endorsed Payne Haas’ defection to Samoa, saying the switch will give the international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-69783","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\/69783","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=69783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}