rugby league<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe former Australia international switched codes last year, having represented the Wallabies in the 2023 World Cup and played sevens in the Paris Olympics. Losing the 24-year-old Sydney native was undoubtedly a blow for Australia, as they have rebuilt in the last two years from the nadir of that 40-6 defeat to Wales in Lyon.<\/p>\n
Union’s loss has been league’s gain, with Nawaqanitawase shining for the Sydney Roosters in NRL this season, having made his debut late in last year’s campaign.<\/p>\n
In May, a try against the Canterbury-Banksdown Bulldogs was described by Channel Nine commentator Matthew Thompson as the “try of the decade” and one of the “greatest tries of all time”.<\/p>\n
Only a rule change has kept him out of the running for the Daily M Rookie of the Year award, pointing to his experience in rugby union, although his impact in the 13-a-side game has clearly been felt.<\/p>\n
That shone through once more, even as the Roosters fell to a surprise 30-10 defeat to the Parramatta Eels, with a superb try assist for Robert Toia on the hour-mark.<\/p>\n
Getting the ball on the edge, the former Waratahs wing drew in three Eels defenders before chucking the ball behind his back for Toia to score – with the commentators left nearly speechless.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI mean seriously. This is Benji Marshall-esque,\u201d Phil Gould said on Channel Nine\u2019s commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cHits him right on the chest with it, one-handed, at pace, he\u2019s heading up the freeway towards Penrith and just flicks it back in field.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been sent from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a similar reaction on social media, with one on X calling Nawaqanitawase an “absolute freak”. Another dubbed him “Marky Mark the magician”, while one said he was “rookie of the year, don’t care what the rules say”.<\/p>\n
Another pointed to the rules keeping him out of the running for silverware, saying that “at this point can we all just chip in & buy Mark Nawaqanitawase a Rookie of the Year Trophy?”<\/p>\n
Remarkably, it wasn’t the only eye-catching try assist from Nawaqanitawase in the match against the Eels.<\/p>\n
In the first-half, the wing got high above Josh Addo-Carr to take a crossfield kick, before once again getting an offload away amid a sea of blue jerseys to put Roosters full-back James Tedesco over.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe can all be excited by the art of the game. It looks risky but for him it\u2019s a matter of executing on practice,\u201d Roosters coach Trent Robinson said afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ball control, it\u2019s where his fingers and thumb are placed on the ball, and how he can move it, bring it back and flick it. It\u2019s a high skill and hopefully he can create a few more opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Australia wing switched codes last year, going on to impress in his first season in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[17613,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-89520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia-rugby-team","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89520","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=89520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Marky-Mark.jpg\")
Mark Nawaqanitawase’s remarkable try assist had commentators and fans saying the same thing(Image: NRL)<\/p>\n