Rugby Australia set to end contract early for former NRL star

Suliasi Vunivalu has not been included in the Queensland Reds’ Super Rugby Pacific squad as the code-hopping winger eyes a French move.

A two-time NRL premiership winner with Melbourne Storm before his high-profile 2021 move, Vunivalu is still contracted by Rugby Australia and the Reds for the 2025 season, which includes a British and Irish Lions tour.

But the 28-year-old, used off the bench by former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones at last year’s forgettable World Cup, is expected to be granted an imminent release to join a high-profile Top 14 outfit rather than return to rugby league.

He has been been linked with Test lock Will Skelton’s French club La Rochelle.

Vunivalu showed terrific early signs in his 2021 debut season before hamstring issues dented his confidence and sucked the momentum out of what threatened to be a brilliant return to the sport the Fijian-born talent grew up playing.

His 40-game, 18-try Reds stint had a sour conclusion, Vunivalu copping a one-game suspension after he was sent off for two tripping incidents in a crushing Fiji homecoming last season.

He faced stiff competition for a berth in a stacked Reds team after teenage winger Tim Ryan’s emergence last season, and was not part of new coach Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies squads or even the Australia A squad currently touring Europe.

Reds teammate Jordan Petaia is the other conspicuous absence from the club’s squad, AAP reporting in October that the two-time World Cup back will attend January’s exclusive NFL International Player Pathway development camp in Florida.

Veteran playmaker James O’Connor knocked back a contract extension to instead join New Zealand powerhouses the Crusaders, the Reds filling the void by recruiting 23-year-old utility back Jude Gibbs from Shute Shield’s Northern Suburbs.

Australian under-20 talents Trevor King and Will McCulloch, as well as Mason Gordon – the younger brother of code-hopping former Wallaby, Carter – are the other new faces in the squad.

After finishing last in 2024, NSW have bolstered their stocks by signing a swag of Melbourne players after the Rebels were cut from the league.

Taniela Tupou, Rob Leota, Isaac Kailea, Angelo Smith, Andrew Kellaway and Darby Lancaster are among former Rebels now in sky blue, while ex-Reds playmaker Lawson Creighton has also signed on.

The Force have added Wallabies Dylan Pietsch, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Harry Johnson-Holmes and Darcy Swain among a host of new faces.

The Brumbies have only signed two Rebels, forward Tuaina Taii Tualima and centre David Feliuai, and promoted four academy players to their main squad.

The season begins on Friday, February 28, with Moana Pasifika hosting the Highlanders in Auckland, before the Waratahs and Fijian Drua do battle in Sydney later that night.