{"id":227937,"date":"2025-10-27T09:47:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227937\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:47:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:47:05","slug":"leigh-leopards-star-tipped-to-walk-into-the-nrl-amid-links-to-png-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227937\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards star tipped to \u2018walk into the NRL\u2019 amid links to PNG Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards star Edwin Ipape would \u201cwalk into the NRL\u201d according to his national team head coach Jason Demetriou.<\/p>\n

Demetriou, who has been appointed as the head coach for the new look London Broncos<\/a>, has sung Ipape\u2019s praised and even argued that he\u2019d be one of the perfect players to launch the new Papua New Guinean NRL team.<\/p>\n

The NRL expanded to 17 teams in recent years but an 18th and 19th side are set to join with Perth Bears to join the competition in 2027, and PNG Chiefs to do so in 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As head coach of Papua New Guinea, Demetriou has obviously learned a fair bit about the culture of the diverse nation, one of the few nations where rugby league is a national sport, and he\u2019s admitted that he would be willing to coach the team.<\/p>\n

Demetriou has a two-year deal with London with the option of a third, a seemingly perfect jump-off point to take on the PNG Chiefs job and it appears he\u2019d be keen for Leigh Leopards star Edwin Ipape to be part of that.<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards\u2019 Edwin Ipape tipped to be a star if he signed with PNG Chiefs<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to the people over here. They know where I stand,\u201d he said to\u00a0The Daily Telegraph\u00a0<\/a>when talking about his future with the national team and prospects of coaching the PNG Chiefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love coaching the Kumuls and it would be a fantastic opportunity to build something from the ground up in a country that\u2019s devoted to rugby league.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an excitement within the country around the bid side coming in and you can feel that in and around the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time there is still a lot of work to do in preparing a squad to be ready for the NRL in two years time.\u201d<\/p>\n

One man who he thinks can make the jump to the NRL is Leigh hooker Edwin Ipape, though the Papua New Guinean is tied to the Leopards until 2031.<\/p>\n

\u201cEdwin would walk into the NRL,\u201d said Demetriou.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been with him the last few days and he is one of the sharpest and most elite hookers I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d be huge,\u201d he said of having players like Ipape or South Sydney\u2019s Alex Johnston as the faces of a PNG Chiefs side.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving some experience in county and understanding what it\u2019s about will make recruitment a lot easier.\u201d<\/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

\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":"Leigh Leopards star Edwin Ipape would \u201cwalk into the NRL\u201d according to his national team head coach Jason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-227937","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\/227937","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=227937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}