Crunch phone call looms after agent’s bombshell Nawaqanitawase reveal
Updated . First published at
Les Kiss is set to finally pick up the phone and dial Mark Nawaqanitawase in what looms as a high-stakes conversation ahead of next year’s home Rugby World Cup.
A News Corp report on Tuesday set a cat among the pigeons, with Nawaqanitawase’s agent claiming that the code-hopping superstar was considering representing Fiji instead of the Wallabies.
Mark Nawaqanitawase of the Wallabies reacts. nna\sworthington
Nawaqanitawase scored six tries in 11 Tests for the Wallabies in 2022-23, before embarking on a spectacularly successful NRL stint with the Sydney Roosters.
The 26-year-old winger is now returning to rugby to start a two-year deal with the Saitama Wild Knights that will reportedly earn him around $3 million.
A crowd favourite and household name after his premiership-winning heroics, Nawaqanitawase loomed as Australia’s marketing face of next year’s World Cup, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.
It had been assumed that Nawaqanitawase would slip comfortably back into a Wallabies jersey, if not for November’s Nations Championship tour of the northern hemisphere then for next year’s Rugby Championship.
Nawaqanitawase also represented the Kangaroos with distinction in league.
But he is also fiercely proud of his Fijian heritage, through his biological father Sevuloni Nawaqanitawase and late stepfather Aisake Tovehi.
Fiji stunned Nawaqanitawase’s Wallabies at the 2023 World Cup and qualified for the quarter-finals ahead of Australia.
Nawaqanitawase’s agent is Milan Volavola-Shankar, the brother of Fiji playmaker Ben Volavola, and Fiji have hired World Cup winner Jake White as their new coach.
Wallabies coach Kiss allowed Nawaqanitawase space this season and to celebrate the Roosters premiership.
“I haven’t heard back from him yet, but we’ll see,” Kiss joked, while reaching for his phone during Thursday’s press conference in Auckland.
“I’ll just let it settle for this week and then have some conversations and see where it goes. I won’t know (if he will tour) until I chat to him. I had one chat to him in the early part of the season then said I’d leave him alone.
Wallabies head coach Les Kiss. Getty Images
“I did text him during State of Origin and said ‘don’t play well against Queensland.’ I’ve kept a clear mind on that part, but he’s obviously flavour of the month, for sure.”
Wallabies and ex-Roosters star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii spoke to media on Tuesday and was expecting to soon have Nawaqanitawase as a teammate.
“Mark, his skill-set, you’ve seen what he’s done over in NRL,” Suaalii said.
“For him to come and bring that over here, it’ll be great for us, you know, for the Wallabies as well. It was great to watch from afar, and we can’t wait to get Gussy (Angus Crichton) and Marky. I feel like the more internal competition we have, the better our team’s going to be...
“He (Nawaqanitawase) did things that not many people can do in the game, and it’s a credit to him as a person, and the club as well.
“They’re a great club, the Sydney Roosters, they know how to make great players. It’ll be great to add his skill-set over here in the Wallabies and Angus here in the Waratahs and the Wallabies as well...
“I feel like he (Nawaqanitawase) would want to come on a Spring Tour, but Les is the man that makes the call. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.
“We’re one year to the World Cup now, so each game’s very important.”
Kiss will speak to the media on Thursday after naming his Wallabies team for the second Bledisloe Cup Test.
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