{"id":98603,"date":"2025-08-27T02:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T02:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/98603\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T02:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T02:27:08","slug":"slater-picks-surprise-kangaroos-bolter-for-ashes-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/98603\/","title":{"rendered":"Slater picks surprise Kangaroos bolter for Ashes – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland Maroons<\/a> head coach Billy Slater<\/a> has backed Sydney Roosters<\/a> star winger Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> to be in the frame for an Australian Kangaroos debut in this year’s Ashes series.<\/p>\n

The winger moved from rugby union after he played for Australia<\/a> in Sevens at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and has been a permanent part of Trent Robinson’s Roosters side this year.<\/p>\n

While his ability in defence and under the high ball has left a little to be desired at times, he has quickly become one of the competition’s best attacking weapons, scoring a number of freakish tries.<\/p>\n

He may head back to rugby union at the end of 2026 with the Rugby Union World Cup in 2027 to be held in Australia<\/a>, but Slater said he could first be part of Walters’ 22-man squad heading to England<\/a> this year, and then contesting for other jerseys, such as a State of Origin<\/a> call-up, throughout the 2026 season if he continues his improvement.<\/p>\n

“I get the feeling that the Roosters jersey isn’t the only one he’s gonna be wearing in the next couple of years,” Slater said on The Billy Slater Podcast.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s going to be wearing a couple of other jerseys – maybe a green and gold one at the end of the year.”<\/p>\n

Nawaqantiawase was in the discussion for a\u00a0Blues<\/a> jumper this year, and likely would have only been an injury or two away from being seriously considered.<\/p>\n

Walters will pick a 22-man squad to head to England<\/a> for the Ashes, but will not have a number of Origin players to call on as they represent other nations.<\/p>\n

That list now includes prop Payne Haas<\/a>, and could also include Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a> and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland Maroons head coach Billy Slater has backed Sydney Roosters star winger Mark Nawaqanitawase to be in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-98603","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\/98603","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=98603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}