{"id":797063,"date":"2026-07-13T07:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797063\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:18:25","slug":"payne-haas-to-stay-with-samoa-and-says-nation-is-big-chance-to-win-rugby-league-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797063\/","title":{"rendered":"Payne Haas to stay with Samoa and says nation is ‘big chance’ to win Rugby League World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winning a World Cup is the final frontier for Payne Haas, and he is fully committed to attempting to do so with Samoa.<\/p>\n

There had been reports the Brisbane prop was considering switching back to Australia for the 2026 tournament, but the 26-year-old has quashed those suggestions.<\/p>\n

Haas, who has Samoan heritage through his mother Joan Haas, committed to Toa Samoa for last year’s Pacific Championships after previously playing four Tests with Australia.<\/p>\n

He helped lift Samoa into the Pacific Cup final after starring in a 34-6 win over Tonga.<\/p>\n

Haas declares for Samoa<\/a><\/p>\n

In a blow to Australia’s hopes of defending its Rugby League World Cup title next year, star forward Payne Haas confirms he is switching his allegiance to Samoa.<\/p>\n

The powerhouse front-rower is a man of his word and said there was no way he had considered making himself available for the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

“I made my decision last year to move to Samoa from Australia,” Haas said.<\/p>\n

“The kind of person I am, I wouldn’t backflip on them. I want to represent my mum, my grandmother and my grandad as well, and there is no way in hell that I would (backflip).”<\/p>\n

Haas is already on his way to being recognised as an all-time great, but lifting Samoa to World Cup glory would be a huge achievement and could elevate Pacific rugby league to another level.<\/p>\n

Samoa has been drawn in the same pool as France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga for the 10-team tournament to be hosted by Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in October and November this year.<\/p>\n

Haas is a key member of a Samoa forward pack that boasts the likes of Francis Molo, Jaydn Su’A, Simi Sasagi, Junior Paulo and Terrell May.<\/p>\n

The back line includes premiership-winning stars Jarome Luai, Brian To’o and Stephen Crichton. Dolphins flyer Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has also committed for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

There is a sense the side can go one better than its 2022 World Cup performance, when it was beaten by Australia in the final.<\/p>\n

“With the kind of calibre of players we have got, there is a great chance, but that is still far away,” Haas said.<\/p>\n

“This is my last two months here, so I am trying to focus on the Broncs.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Last week Haas dominated the State of Origin decider for New South Wales, terrorising Queensland up front in a stunning 30-12 win. It was his third Origin series win when playing all three matches, and his second in a decider at Lang Park.<\/p>\n

Last year’s premiership win with Brisbane ticked that box, and Haas was also named the club’s player of the year for a sixth time.<\/p>\n

He is without doubt the Broncos’s greatest player of the decade, and a worthy successor to the likes of Glenn Lazarus, Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva and Brad Thorn.<\/p>\n

Haas will join South Sydney next year, but is fully committed to reviving Brisbane’s spluttering season as it targets winning all eight of its remaining matches to give itself a chance of defending its title.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winning a World Cup is the final frontier for Payne Haas, and he is fully committed to attempting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,4428,3195,2733,13390,760,159,5993,588,85,6405,21418],"class_list":["post-797063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-kangaroos","tag-nsw","tag-payne-haas","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league","tag-samoa","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797063","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=797063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}