{"id":435948,"date":"2026-05-20T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:56:11","slug":"suliasi-vinivalu-to-make-rugby-league-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435948\/","title":{"rendered":"Suliasi Vinivalu to make rugby league return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Melbourne Storm<\/a> prolific try-scorer Suliasi Vunivalu<\/a> is approaching a return to rugby league.<\/p>\n

Currently playing rugby union in France<\/a> and nursing an ACL injury, it’s tipped he will return to the 13-man sport that he last played with the Melbourne Storm<\/a> in 2020 via the English Super League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Love Rugby League<\/a> in England<\/a> are reporting that Wakefield Trinity<\/a> are closing on a deal to sign him for 2027.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear whether the deal on the table runs for more than a single season, but he would be a major get for the English club with his try-scoring, aggression and pace lighting up the NRL<\/a> during his time with the Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There, he scored 86 tries in 111 games and played in a number of grand fials, while he also scored 12 tries in 10 Tests for Fiji<\/a> and could well push for a return to that national set up in end of year internationals even from the Super League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leaving the NRL<\/a> at the end of 2020, Vunivalu spent four seasons with the Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby competition, scoring 20 tries in 39 games, while he also made his debut for Australia<\/a> in 2022, and played two games for Australia<\/a> A in the 15-man game.<\/p>\n

The Fijian-born outside back, now aged 30, has been in France<\/a> since the start of 2025.<\/p>\n

As the halfway point of the 2026 season approaches in the Super League<\/a>, Wakefield, who are coached by Daryl Powell, sit in fifth spot on the table and are well in the mix for finals action with 7 wins from 11 starts.<\/p>\n

The club hae ex-NRL players Mason Lino<\/a>, Tyson Smoothy<\/a>, Ky Rodwell<\/a>, Seth Nikotem and Jazz Tevaga<\/a> in their mix for 2026, and while there are reports Smoothy will head back to Australia<\/a> at the end of the year despite signing on a three-year deal, the club have already added Roger Tuivasa-Sheck<\/a> as their marquee recruit for 2027.<\/p>\n

Vunivalu’s move could see him and Tuivasa-Sheck line up in the outside backs for Wakefield heading into 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Melbourne Storm prolific try-scorer Suliasi Vunivalu is approaching a return to rugby league. Currently playing rugby union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-435948","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\/435948","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=435948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}