{"id":418066,"date":"2026-05-08T14:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418066\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:21:10","slug":"lead-contender-emerges-in-race-for-murray-taulagi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418066\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead contender emerges in race for Murray Taulagi"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Roosters<\/a> have emerged as the surprise leading contender for the signature of off-contract North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> winger Murray Taulagi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Origin-level winger who is in doubt for Game 1 of this year’s series owing to concussions is yet to lock up his future, and it has appeared more and more likely that an exit from Townsville – where he has played his entire NRL<\/a> career to date – is likely.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys’ position on Taulagi’s future is unclear, but he has been linked to several clubs in Sydney, including most notably the St George Illawarra Dragons,<\/a> who are desperate for new-look wingers heading into 2027.<\/p>\n

It’s the Sydney Roosters<\/a> who are understood to have emerged as favourites, though, as they prepare to lose Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Wide World of Sports’ The Mole reports Taulagi is being looked at as a straight swap in for Nawaqanitawase, while also providing cover if Daniel Tupou<\/a> elects to hang up the boots in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Tupou has suggested he is keen to play on, but no deal has been confirmed at this stage.<\/p>\n

The Roosters have already signed Reuben Garrick<\/a> for 2027, but may prefer to use him in the centres if they can.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt Robert Toia<\/a> has one of the centre positions locked up at the Roosters, but Billy Smith<\/a> appears to have fallen out of favour in recent weeks, opening up the argument that another backline player could be needed.<\/p>\n

If they sign Taulagi, then that will be Garrick’s home, with Smith on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

Given the Roosters will also lose James Tedesco<\/a> to retirement at some point in the coming years, Taulagi and Garrick will provide excellent coverage around the backline, with Garrick able to play anywhere between one and five.<\/p>\n

Tedesco has already indicated in previous discussions that Rex Bassingthwaighte<\/a>, who took out player of the match in last weekend’s SG Ball Cup<\/a> grand final, is the favourite for his number one jumper long-term.<\/p>\n

The Roosters also have Cody Ramsey<\/a> and Tommy Talau<\/a> on their books this year with unclear futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sydney Roosters have emerged as the surprise leading contender for the signature of off-contract North Queensland Cowboys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-418066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}