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'We've talked': Sydney Roosters boss confirms interest in All Blacks star TJ Perenara

By AAP
(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has confirmed the side are in talks to bring All Blacks star TJ Perenara to the NRL club to help solve their injury crisis.

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Speaking after the Roosters‘ loss to Melbourne on Friday night, Robinson said the club were interested in the Kiwi ace, after Perenara’s manager revealed this week the parties were negotiating.

“We’ve talked, but it’s preliminary at this stage,” Robinson said.

“That got it out there pretty quickly – we’ve had talks and we’ll see where it gets to.”

Asked whether he believed Perenara, who has 69 New Zealand Test caps but has never played rugby league, could make a quick transition, Robinson said such talk was premature.

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“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s be happy with the report of discussions, but let’s not get too far ahead – how’s he going to play in the first game and all that.

“We’ll take it step by step.”

Robinson said former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who now works part-time with the Roosters, hadn’t been involved in the discussions.

The Roosters have another in, with Perenara’s former All Blacks teammate Sonny Bill Williams playing out his league career with the Tri-Colours.

Perenara is playing his rugby for NTT Red Hurricanes in the Japan Top League but is known to be a fan of rugby league, with his father Thomas and cousin Henry both former players, the latter now an NRL referee.

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While Perenara has played all his rugby at halfback, it’s believed the Roosters are looking at the star as a hooker. The two positions across the codes are similar in attack.

His biggest challenge would be getting up to speed with league’s defensive patterns.

With veteran rake Jake Friend forced into retirement and a spate of injuries, Ben Marschke played in the No.9 jumper against the Storm and suffered a late head knock but cleared his HIA test.

Perenara’s deal with New Zealand Rugby is up at the end of 2021, although if given permission he could join the Roosters at the end of the Japan season next month and be available mid-June.

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Nickers 4 hours ago
Why the All Blacks overlooking Joe Schmidt could yet hurt them in the Bledisloe battle

I've never understood why Razor stayed on in NZ after winning 3 SR titles in a row. Surely at that point it's time to look for the next thing, which at that stage of his career should not have been the ABs, and arguably still shouldn't be given his lack of experience in International rugby. What was gained by staying on at the Crusaders to win 4 more titles?


2 years in the premiership, 2 years as an assistant international coach, then 4 years taking a team through a WC cycle would have given him what he needed to be the best ABs coach. As it is he is learning on the job, and his inexperience shows even more when he surrounds himself with assistant coaches who have no top international experience either.


He is being faced with extreme adversity and pressure now, possibly for the first time in his coaching career. Maybe he will come through well and maybe he won't, but the point is the coaching selection process is so flawed that he is doing it for the first time while in arguably the top coaching job in world rugby. It's like your first job out of university being the CEO of Microsoft or Google.


There was talk of him going to England if the ABs didn't get him, that would have been perfect in my opinion. That is a super high pressure environment and NZR would have been way better off letting him learn the trade with someone else's team. I predicted when Razor was appointed that he would be axed or resign after 2 years then go on to have a lot of success in his next appointment. I hope that doesn't happen because it will mean a lot of turmoil for the ABs, but it's not unthinkable. Many of his moves so far look exactly like the early days of Foster's era when he too was flanked by coaches who were not up to the job. I would like to see some combination of Cotter, Joseph, Brown, and Felix Jones come into the set up.

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