{"id":364860,"date":"2026-01-11T18:32:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/364860\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:32:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:32:31","slug":"xavier-vaa-york-knights-sign-former-sydney-roosters-prop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/364860\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Va&#8217;a: York Knights sign former Sydney Roosters prop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">York Knights have signed former Sydney Roosters prop Xavier Va&#8217;a on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 22-year-old scored a try 49 seconds into his sole National Rugby League appearance for Roosters against Cronulla Sharks in May 2024 but was released from his contract in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He comes highly recommended and his footage looks exactly like the sort of player we were after, but more importantly he seems the kind of player who will fit the culture we have at York,&#8221; head coach Mark Applegarth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yorkrlfc.com\/post\/va-a-signs-for-knights\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told the club website., external<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s come here to improve and to make his mark and he&#8217;ll add a lot of depth to our pack and a lot of punch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Top-flight newcomers York open their inaugural Super League campaign against reigning champions Hull KR on Thursday, 12 February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"York Knights have signed former Sydney Roosters prop Xavier Va&#8217;a on a two-year deal. The 22-year-old scored a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-364860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364860","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=364860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}