Savea keen to try hand at league
All Blacks star loose forward Ardie Savea wants to play in the NRL in a move that will send shock waves across the rugby and league codes.
Speaking on The
Ice Project podcast, hosted by former Warriors halfback
Isaac John, Savea said he had been thinking about trying his hand at the
13-man code potentially as early as next year.
He is presently sidelined with a knee injury suffered during the All Blacks’ World Cup semifinal loss to England last year.
Savea is contracted to NZ Rugby until the end of the 2021 season.
But the Hurricanes’ leading light told the podcast that before he suffered the injury he was ‘‘low-key thinking about it [a code switch] for next year’’.
Inspired by fellow All Blacks code-hopper Sonny Bill Williams, Savea said having a crack in the Australian rugby league competition had always appealed to him.
The challenge of learning a new game and the added off-field possibilities league provides to athletes was too attractive an opportunity not to consider, he said.
‘‘100 per cent I want to play rugby league, I think they [the players] do a lot more in terms of off the field stuff. And also, just a new challenge. I want to test myself,’’ Savea said.
‘‘Learning a whole new game and seeing if I can dominate or, play the way I play in union, that excites me. Seeing guys like Sonny do it kind of plays on my mind a bit.’’
Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee was diplomatic in a statement about Savea’s comments.
‘‘We are aware of Ardie’s comments. Ardie, like many other athletes, is interested in a wide range of sports and he is entitled to express some desire to play one those sports.’’
Sadly for Warriors fans, any potential switch would be to a powerhouse club like the Roosters or Melbourne, Savea said.
In 2019 on the same podcast, former Australian rugby pivot Quade Cooper expressed a similar desire to switch codes and try his hand in the NRL.
Cooper, 31, has recently been seeking training opportunities with local rugby league sides in Queensland, though at this stage of his career the NRL would seem a bridge too far.
Savea on the other hand, aged just 26 and with the talent he has, would have few betting against him carving out a successful career in league should the switch eventuate.
He would be a massive loss to union, and to add insult to injury for Kiwi sports fans Savea said if his future was in the NRL, it wouldn’t be with the Warriors.
‘‘Strategically I would want to got to a team that was dominating, like the Storm or Roosters,’’ he said.
‘‘It sucks that I got this injury because I was low key thinking about it [switching to league] for next year.’’