Former Parramatta Eels outside back Waqa Blake’s future may not lie in rugby union after all.
It has been widely reported for a number of months that Blake was in discussions with clubs in the 15-man game, namely the Western Force, who play in the Super Rugby competition across Australia and New Zealand.
But it now appears those talks have broken down, with Blake instead entertaining a move to the English Super League where he could take the final international player quota spot at St Helens, according to both The League Scene Podcast and Yorkshire Live.
EXCLUSIVE: We’ve been told Waqa Blake has a new home and it is NOT rugby Union.
Waqa Blake is headed for St Helens in the Super League where he’ll fulfil the final quota spot.
While it’s unclear exactly how advanced the negotiations are, it has been suggested that Blake could have a deal signed and delivered with St Helens by the end of the week.
St Helens’ desire to sign a centre was made clear when they left the number three jersey open in their squad at number reveal time recently, with Super League players wearing the same number throughout the season regardless of the way a team is named each week.
The Fiji-born 29-year-old has played 165 NRL games across his time at both the Penrith Panthers (2015 – 2019) and Parramatta Eels (2020 – 2023), although it became clear he had fallen out of Eels’ coach Brad Arthur’s plans during 2023 when he struggled to feature regularly in first-grade.
With Parramatta looking to revamp both their squad and salary cap, Blake wasn’t offered a new deal by the club.
The centre’s impending move to St Helens will see him join a number of other ex-NRL players including Sione Mata’utia, Moses Mbye, Curtis Sironen, Agnatius Paasi and Konrad Hurrell.
2023 saw St Helens run of four straight premierships broken as Wigan got the better of Catalans in the competition decider, while it was also their first season in the post-Kristian Woolf era, with Paul Wellens taking over as head coach.
His coaching staff receives a boost for 2024 though with veteran hooker James Roby, who played a staggering 551 games for St Helens over a 20-year career, joining
