{"id":887456,"date":"2026-09-10T23:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887456\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:30:12","slug":"tevita-pangai-junior-chasing-nrl-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887456\/","title":{"rendered":"Tevita Pangai Junior chasing NRL return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL<\/a> forward Tevita Pangai Jr will finish his time at Hull KR<\/a> and make a return to Australia<\/a> in one last attempt at locking down an NRL<\/a> contract.<\/p>\n

Tevita Pangai Jr has been in the Super League<\/a> since 2024 with the Catalans Dragons<\/a> and the Robins, but has had a disrupted English campaign this year after multiple suspensions with Hull KR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was slapped with a six-game ban in June for an eye-gouging incident, then shortly after his return to the field, he picked up a further five-game suspension after disciplinary issues in a match against Warrington.<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n

It’s prompted both parties to call it time at the end of the season, with the Courier Mail revealing he will return to Australia<\/a> to fight for a contract at an NRL<\/a> club.<\/p>\n

Pangai Jr has only played five games for Willie Peters’ side in 2026, leaving plenty to be desired for Robins fans for what should have been a quality inclusion into the side in his 12-month contract.<\/p>\n

\"RoundSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JULY 07: Tevita Pangai Junior of the Broncos looks to pass during the round 16 NRL match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Brisbane Broncos at Shark Park on July 07, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Tongan enforcer got the call-up to the NSW Blues<\/a> in 2023 under Brad Fittler<\/a>, while also playing for four separate clubs in his NRL<\/a> career.<\/p>\n

It included the Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, Penrith Panthers<\/a>, and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs<\/a>, before deciding to pursue boxing in late 2023, then returning to the Dolphins<\/a> in mid-2024 under Wayne Bennett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pangai Junior adds plenty of aggression when he enters the field and shapes up as a quality deal at the right price for some NRL<\/a> clubs looking to instil some grunt into their engine room.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old still has plenty of time up his sleeve to resurrect his playing career in Australia<\/a>, and standing at over 190 cm tall and agile in his movement, he can create havoc in the recent six-again era in the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pangai Junior was a member of the Panthers’ 2021 premiership side when the club started their dominant era of four straight title wins.<\/p>\n

He has amassed 147 games in the NRL<\/a> across his four teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL forward Tevita Pangai Jr will finish his time at Hull KR and make a return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-887456","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\/887456","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=887456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}