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Jordan Petaia takes step closer to following Louis Rees-Zammit into NFL
By AAP
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.
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.
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.
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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So was I right to infer that you assumed a 1:1 correspondence between points and places?
If so why were you so evasive about admitting that?
I don't have much of an opinion about how it should be done. It isn't my preferred system as I think there should be a significant number of teams who qualify directly as a result of their performance in the previous year's CC. But I think 6/5/5 or 6/6/4 would probably make the most sense as splits if they ever did go over to the UEFA model.
Go to commentsStopping the drop off out of high school has to be of highest priority - there is a lot of rugby played at high school level, but the pathways once they leave are not there. Provincial unions need support here from Rugby Canada to prop up that space.
Concussion is also an issue that has seen sports like ultimate frisbee gain ground. All competitions and clubs should integrate touch rugby teams into their pathways. Whenever clubs play XVs games, they should also be taking 20mins to play a competitive touch rugby game too.
Then take rugby branding and move it away from the fringe game that only crazy people play and make it an exercise-first sport that caters to everyone including people who don't want contact.
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