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Jordan Petaia takes step closer to following Louis Rees-Zammit into NFL

Jordan Petaia of the Reds looks on ahead of the round eight Super Rugby Pacific match between Moana Pasifika and Queensland Reds at Apia Park National Stadium, on April 14, 2023, in Apia, Samoa. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Jordan Petaia has knocked back lucrative European rugby and NRL offers and will instead give up at least five months of pay to pursue his NFL dream.

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AAP understands the in-demand, two-time World Cup Wallabies star will attend January’s exclusive International Player Pathway (IPP) development camp in Florida.

It’s the same program that kick-started Jordan Mailata’s NFL career with Philadelphia, the Sydney giant one of five internationals to crack an active roster since the program began in 2017.

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Scott Barrett and Scott Robertson break down the All Blacks win over the Wallabies in Bledisloe II

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    Scott Barrett and Scott Robertson break down the All Blacks win over the Wallabies in Bledisloe II

    Petaia, 24, is off contract beyond November at the Queensland Reds and will go without a pay cheque until at least April 1, if signed by any of the 32 NFL franchises.

    Fresh off a US holiday, the 24-year-old returned to Ballymore on Monday for day one of pre-season.

    Match Summary

    0
    Penalty Goals
    2
    5
    Tries
    1
    4
    Conversions
    1
    0
    Drop Goals
    0
    155
    Carries
    143
    9
    Line Breaks
    4
    12
    Turnovers Lost
    15
    9
    Turnovers Won
    5

    The club is supportive of Petaia’s ambition, their goal to ensure the shoulder injury that cut short his 2024 campaign is fully healed so he can impress in January.

    The Reds are confident that he will return to Ballymore, and not a rival Super Rugby Pacific club, if no NFL deal eventuates next year.

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    Comments

    2 Comments
    O
    OJohn 158 days ago

    He's a freak talent. I hope his body holds up to the brutal hits and he comes back to the Reds one day.

    M
    MP 158 days ago

    'Dream'. He always dreamed of standing around in helmets and body armour for a living? Sure he did.

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    J
    JW 3 hours ago
    The revitalised Australians are pushing a Super Rugby revival

    I’d have to get my head around it, but for simplicity and continuity sake, I’ll pose if we take your description and apply that it means a team like SA simply chooses to scrum and lineout more often, and perhaps take longer in doing so, then that would be a very obvious circumstance to have verified, but I have not seen anything like that. I mean we did agonize over scrums nearly taking a minute to set in that semi final, but that was two sides happy to play (at) the same game (/pace).


    My assumption was it was rather a symptom of how they play, a combative tight contest results in more errors/scrums, kicking inclination and tall timber means more ball dead lineouts (playing for penalties?), if the game is '“slower” because of ‘legitimate’ factors, a low BIP is fairly irrelevant, you’re both still getting your bang for buck of a great contest, and those contests are very absorbing and energy zapping, which doesn’t align with your theory. You’re on the edge of your seat waiting to see one team get smash in the scrum, or if the other can secure good ball, just as you are waiting for a phase or two to build before pressure a ruck for a turnover etc. I’m sure they would loved a higher BIP if that was the symptom of their style, just as long as they got those rest breaks still.


    But I could always have had the wrong perception of it being based on the fact I’ve only notice BIP improving when refs started stopping the clock (instead of berating the teams to hurryup), so the BIP obviously improves when doing that, but the game still looked to take as long, meaning that 1 or 2 minutes saved was always going to be largely ineffectual. It has also always appeared to me that what defines teams like SA is the amount of time the clock is stopped (even before refs tried to combat them by blowing the whistle more often) in their games, and therefor how long their games last. This is a stat/factor that I have seen analyzed and proven, but your articles have also highlighted the odd thing or two (scrum frequency dropping etc) that I would be very interested in a comprehensive analysis on effects of a test involving SA (compared to before), I certainly can’t remember any extra fatigue showing in their games last year after a raft of changes to stop scrums from being taken etc.

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