{"id":440150,"date":"2026-05-22T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440150\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:47:12","slug":"in-the-near-future-queensland-debutant-weighing-up-titans-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440150\/","title":{"rendered":"“In the near future”: Queensland debutant weighing up Titans exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast Titans<\/a> outside back Jojo Fifita<\/a> has admitted ahead of his State of Origin<\/a> debut that a switch to rugby union is a possibility.<\/p>\n

The winger was a surprise selection in Billy Slater’s side for the State of Origin<\/a> opener next Wednesday when the side was announced on Monday, although Fifita has been a consistent performer across his career that got underway in 2022 with the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

He has gone on to play 68 games, scoring 32 tries, and improvements at both ends of the park this year despite the Titans’ ongoing struggles have seen him picked to make his debut on the wing for Queensland where Xavier Coates<\/a> and Murray Taulagi<\/a> are both missing to injury.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old’s father played rugby union and represented Tonga<\/a> at the 2003 World Cup which was held in Australia<\/a>, with Jojo telling The Sydney Morning Herald that at one stage rugby league wasn’t on the radar.<\/p>\n

Instead, he was set to follow his father in rugby union, and admitted to The Sydney Morning Herald that a move back to the 15-man code could be on the radar in the near future.<\/p>\n

“[Going back to union] is definitely there in the back of my mind \u2013 probably not right now, but maybe in the near future,” the winger told the publication.<\/p>\n

Fifita is off-contract with the Titans at the end of 2027 and could negotiate with rival NRL<\/a> clubs from November 1 this year, however, Rugby Australia<\/a>, if interested, wouldn’t need to wait that long to begin talks.<\/p>\n

The 15-man code’s next World Cup is next year, so Fifita won’t feature in that as the likes of Zac Lomax<\/a>, Joseph Manu<\/a>, Joseph Suaalii<\/a> and Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a> – who have, or will all make the code switch – will be a chance at doing, but he could yet carve out a career for himself in rugby union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast Titans outside back Jojo Fifita has admitted ahead of his State of Origin debut that a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-440150","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\/440150","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=440150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}