Another NRL star set to make the switch to rugby union – report

It’s been a big week for the Sydney Roosters. Just a few days after it was revealed that New Zealand Kiwis fullback Joseph Manu is set to switch codes, it’s been reported that Roosters teammate Angus Crichton will do the same.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the Rugby League World Cup-winning forward will make the move to France when his current NRL deal expires at the end of the upcoming campaign.

Crichton, 28, was linked with a move to Australian rugby last year, with the Western Force reportedly looking to sign the NRL star on a two-year deal from 2024. But no deal was signed in the wake of the Wallabies’ disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign.

“Like a vast majority of the rugby public, we are apprehensive about the immediate state of the game,” Crichton’s agent David Rawlings told the Sydney Morning Herald last year.

“You could reference the assessment made by the head coach (Eddie Jones) just days ago to justify that. We have moved on and my client is focused on the upcoming pr-season with the Roosters.”

Crichton was a prodigal rugby union talent during his high school career in Sydney’s GPS competition. The now-NRL talent went on to play with the Australian Schoolboys.

But after signing a deal with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the hard-hitting forward has gone on to achieve pretty well everything in Australian rugby league.

Crichton has played for New South Wales in State of Origin, Australia at international level, and is an NRL premiership winner. Add a World Cup and a World Club Challenge to his list of accolades, too.

But a new opportunity awaits. As it’s been reported, a move to rugby union at the end of 2024 is waiting on the horizon for the talent once believed to be lost to the NRL.

If Crichton does sign on, and should Joey Manu do the same, then the Sydney Roosters will lose three players to rugby union at the end of this year – of course, that includes Australian rugby’s marquee recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.