{"id":172989,"date":"2025-10-01T14:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/172989\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:34:09","slug":"league-one-club-snap-up-ex-nrl-salford-red-devils-and-leigh-leopards-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/172989\/","title":{"rendered":"League One club snap up ex-NRL, Salford Red Devils and Leigh Leopards man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"League\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

League One Rochdale Hornets have snapped up former Salford Red Devils and Leigh Leopards man Junior Sa\u2019u for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019u has joined the Hornets on a one-year deal as the club prepare to make the jump up to an expanded Championship division. The 38-year-old has over 300 career appearances under his belt and he\u2019ll provide some much needed experience at Spotland as the Hornets strive to successfully make the step up.<\/p>\n

The centre has spent the last few seasons with Keighley Cougars, joining the club in 2022 and making 56 appearances for the West Yorkshire outfit. He spent five years with Salford earlier in his career, scoring 59 tries in 142 appearances, while he has also had spells with Wakefield Trinity and Leigh.<\/p>\n

Prior to making the move over to England, Sa\u2019u played in the NRL, playing 90 games down under between 2008 and 2013. Of those games, 86 of them came in the colours of Newcastle Knights before he spent a season at Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019u is also a former New Zealand and Samoa international. As well as representing the Hornets he will take on a community role, working in local schools as part of Rochdale\u2019s partners Edstart Sports Coaching.<\/p>\n

League One side sign Junior Sa\u2019u<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting for me to take on this new challenge,\u201d Sa\u2019u told the club website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my career I\u2019ve loved challenges, it\u2019s what has kept me going. I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity to keep playing the sport I\u2019ve loved since being a little kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a professional, on and off the pitch as well. I pride myself on keeping fit and feel like I\u2019ve still got plenty to give.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never lost my drive to compete at a high level, and I\u2019m looking forward to the next chapter in my career with this great club.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hornets chairman Andy Mazey said: \u201cJunior is a big name with a wealth of NRL and Super League experience, and is well-known for being a consummate professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt, he is a good fit for us as we look to significantly improve standards and the culture at the club in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the retirement of three senior professionals, Gary Thornton was keen to add some experience to the group, and Junior has played in some big games during his career for some of the greatest coaches in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving done our homework and gotten to know him through the process of recruiting him, it\u2019s evident that he\u2019s still a fantastic athlete who is addicted to training and in remarkable shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cAway from the field, he will also be working with our strategic partner Edstart in local schools, and will be an asset in the community as a clean-living role model for young people and Hornets supporters to engage with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to see him in a Rochdale Hornets shirt. This is a great signing for us on a number of levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"League One Rochdale Hornets have snapped up former Salford Red Devils and Leigh Leopards man Junior Sa\u2019u for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-172989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}