Why the hell did rugby let him go?
Amid all the superlatives uttered over replays of Mark Nawaqanitawase’s try for the Roosters on Friday, Fox Sports caller Dan Ginnane cut to the quick.
“Why the hell did rugby let him go? This kid is amazing,” Ginnane said. “We are going to be seeing that for years.”
Ginnane meant replays of the freakish Nawaqanitawase try against the Bulldogs, which needs to be seen to understood but, in written form, was an insane ballet of hopping, kicking, swerving and regathering in the rain at Accor Stadium.
Shaun Johnson, who knows a thing or two about freakish tries, said it was “up there with one of the best individual finishes I have ever seen.”
But Ginnane would have also been correct if he had been predicting that Nawaqanitawase was only going to produce more tries like that in the coming years.
Mark Nawaqanitawase after that try. It took several replays for people to understand what had just happened.Credit: Getty Images
The million-dollar question is whether he’ll be doing it in a Roosters jersey or if – based on the evidence of Friday night – Rugby Australia will be sufficiently chastened about letting him go that they pull out all the stops to bring him back for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
You can be sure that’s the result Australian rugby fans want to see, particularly when they sit down, grit their teeth and watch Nawaqanitase score try after try for the Roosters.
To answer Ginnane’s question – why did they let him go in the first place? – you have to go all the way back to Rugby Australia’s signing of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in March, 2023.
Nawaqanitawse was then 22 and a winger in his fourth season with the Waratahs. He’d made his Wallabies debut at the end of 2022, played at a Commonwealth Games and was looking to extend his time in rugby for a few more years.
Mark Nawaqanitawase scores a try against France.Credit: Getty
But when Suaalii was signed on massive money as an outside back, and RA only offered him a one-year extension, Nawqanitawase was one of a few players who, understandably, wondered how much they were truly valued.
The Wallaby winger was one of a small handful to emerge from the 2023 Rugby World Cup with his reputation enhanced, and when Roosters coach Trent Robinson called and asked for a chat after he got home, he agreed. Robinson is a left-field thinker who understands rugby, and he saw the chance to swoop and replace Suaalii with a similar athlete, just cheaper.
A second meeting with Roosters supremo Nick Politis followed, and an offer was made. It was a red-carpet courtship. Nawaqanitawase was given a month to take or leave it.
RA were, at this point, busy trying to contain the rolling binfire of a disastrous World Cup campaign, Eddie Jones quitting his post and a state-led coup against chair Hamish McLennan.
Eddie Jones surveys Australia’s historic World Cup loss to Fiji.Credit: Getty
A similar counter-offer was eventually made to stop Nawaqanitawase jumping, but still a few months away from Joe Schmidt signing on, the distracted RA sales pitch came second. Nawaqanitawase elected to try something new, and signed with the Roosters for 2025.
In the end, he debuted in the NRL at the end of 2024, after an Olympic campaign and an early release. The rest is short but spectacular history.
Nawaqanitawase scored on debut, and has now crossed eight times in nine NRL games. He has won fans among many seasoned judges, Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler among them, and was even floated as a possible Origin bolter.
Now almost 25, Nawaqanitawase is no kid. There has been an element of the myopic corners of the league world being surprised about his physical abilities – outta nowhere – because they hadn’t seen him play a second of rugby.
Mark Nawaqanitawase scores for the Sydney Roosters against the Dolphins.
This is, in fact, Marky Mark’s seventh season as a professional footballer. He has played in front of 70,000 people more times than most of his new teammates.
But Robinson was watching rugby and saw the potential for what has unfolded. There were questions marks about whether Nawaqanitawase’s fondness of chancing his hand in rugby, with offloads and chip kicks, would translate to the more risk-averse rugby league.
But Robinson not only backed him, he even wants his team – and the code – to learn from Nawaqanitwase.
“The attrition base in union isn’t as high as in league, and so therefore you can take risk and it’s not going to hurt you like it can hurt you in rugby league,” Robinson said post-game.
“That’s why we love rugby league but we’ve also got to make sure that players are coming through not thinking attrition through 17s and 19s and all of that.
“There’s got to be allowed that freedom in footy, and hopefully Mark can open up that for players and coaches to allow more freedom in the right areas [to] back yourself. Our game needs those players.”
The Roosters are already sold on Nawaqanitawase and are keen to extend him past 2026, according to people close to the winger. But he is holding off and focussing on letting his first season play out.
That leaves a door open for Rugby Australia. The former Wallaby still kicks around with his ex-Waratahs teammates and has made it known he sees himself playing rugby again one day.
If RA aren’t on the phone to Nawaqanitwase about making that day January 1, 2027 – nine months before the World Cup in Australia – then they need to roll another replay of last Friday night.
Suaalii is a superb footballer but as seen in the shivers of concern when he fractured his jaw last week, depth is not a strong point of Australian rugby.
Having another big, athletic ex-Rooster would only boost the Wallabies’ chances of winning the William Webb Ellis Cup, at Accor Stadium. He knows the way to the line.
