{"id":424189,"date":"2026-05-12T17:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424189\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:03:15","slug":"former-nrl-star-calls-time-on-rugby-league-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424189\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NRL star calls time on rugby league career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former New Zealand Warriors<\/a> and Gold Coast Titans<\/a> centre Konrad Hurrell<\/a> has decided to hang up the boots following a decorated career across both hemispheres.<\/p>\n

The Tongan international went on his Instagram to announce the update following a stint this year with the French side Lezignan in the Super XIII competition.<\/p>\n

In his first season with the Warriors in 2012, Hurrell scored 12 tries. He went on to tally 41 tries in his stint across the Tasman before moving to the Gold Coast ahead of the 2016 season.<\/p>\n

Hurrell left the NRL<\/a> after 116 NRL<\/a> games across the Warriors and Titans before linking up with Leeds Rhinos<\/a> in 2019, where he remained in the Super League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He had three seasons with the Rhinos before a transfer to St Helens<\/a> in 2022, while also representing the Bradford Bulls<\/a>, Halifax Panthers<\/a> and Swinton Lions<\/a> on loan in 2025.<\/p>\n

One of the great personalities in the NRL<\/a> during his time, Hurrell made a name for himself with his strong carries from centre and proved to be a handful to stop close to the line, finishing with 55 tries in the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hurrell went on his Instagram to announce his departure from Lezignan.<\/p>\n

“I appreciate your love and welcome for me and my little family in the Lezignan family and this great club,” Hurrell said on social media, shortly followed by an update on his Instagram story confirming his retirement.<\/p>\n

“Loving French XIII rugby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To the boys and coaches, sorry my French sucks, I’ll be better next time. Love you all.”<\/p>\n

Hurrell represented his island nation of Tonga<\/a> 13 times during his career, spanning three World Cups (2013, 2017 and 2022) and featured prominently in the nation’s historic victory over Australia<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

The 16-12 win was the first time a Tier 2 nation beat Australia<\/a> since 1978.<\/p>\n

Hurrell also featured in St Helen’s World Club Challenge victory over the Penrith Panthers<\/a> in his first season at the club in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former New Zealand Warriors and Gold Coast Titans centre Konrad Hurrell has decided to hang up the boots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-424189","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\/424189","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=424189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}