Exclusive: NRL powerhouse set sights on Wallaby-in-waiting after ex-All Blacks boss snags Roosters star Manu

The Sydney Roosters are set to throw the cheque book at Wallaby-in-waiting Max Jorgensen, with the NRL club to lose Joey Manu to the 15-player game.

The Roar can exclusively reveal Manu, 27, has rejected advances from French rugby to sign with Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz in the Japanese League One competition.

It’s understood Manu was convinced that joining Hansen, who played a pivotal role in helping former Roosters star Sonny Bill Williams become double World Cup winner, would help his transition to rugby union.

It’s believed Manu has signed a one-year next for the 2025 season.

He will join World Cup winners Aaron Smith and Pieter-Steph du Toit at the club, who also have two-time World Rugby player of the year Beauden Barrett in their services this year.

But with Barrett due to return to New Zealand at season’s end, Hansen’s Verblitz, who have regularly underwhelmed since the high profile coach joined as the side’s director of rugby following the 2019 World Cup, have cash to play with.

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Joseph Manu is set to sign with Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz in the Japan League One competition. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

By moving to a developing competition, Manu won’t have the same spotlight that fellow league convert Roger Tuivasa-Sheck had when he joined the Blues in an attempt to play at last year’s World Cup.

That factor could prove important as Manu hopes to play for the All Blacks down the track.

News of Manu’s pending departure has freed up some salary cap space at the Roosters.

Now, months after signing Mark Nawaqanitawase on a two-year-deal from 2025, it’s understood the Roosters have set their sights on luring another Waratah away from Daceyville and across Anzac Parade by going after teenage sensation Jorgensen.

The Australian has reported that the Tri-Colours have offered Jorgensen a $1.8 million, two-year contract.

Roosters chairman Nick Politis later told The Sydney Morning Herald, “We have not made him an offer.”

Experienced Roosters coach Trent Robinson added: “I’ve known him since he was a kid. [I’m] great mates with his dad. We had him training here a while ago. There’s always a door open for that at some point, but that hasn’t been discussed from the last time we tried to sign him.”

The Roar however understand the Roosters have made a play at snaring the prodigious talent, who was taken by Eddie Jones on last year’s World Cup campaign in France. Jorgensen ultimately didn’t play a game as his World Cup dream was crushed by a second devastating leg injury inside four months.

Max Jorgensen is being headhunted by the Sydney Roosters after Joey Manu signed with Toyota. (Photo by Pete Dovgan/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Rugby Australia, who have been slow in the contracting space after a dramatic six months and only recently had their new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt come on board, are currently in discussions to extend Jorgensen’s contract.

But their laidback approach, as well as the jaw-dropping $1.6m per year deal departing Roosters back Joseph Suaalii is coming on, could come back to haunt RA if the the NRL club was able to snare their second high-profile young back in the space of four months.

Jorgensen, whose Wallaby father Peter played for the Roosters, earlier this year expressed an interest in staying in Australian rugby given the country will host the British and Irish Lions in 2025 and the World Cup in 2027.

“That’s the dream to play in a World Cup, playing for the Wallabies,” Jorgensen told The Roar in February.

“Obviously with the British and Irish Lions coming up next year, it only comes around every 12 years, so if you miss that you don’t really get another opportunity to do it again, so playing in something like that would be awesome.

“I’m just focusing on this year, trying to have a good season with the Tahs and then see what happens.”

Asked whether it was accurate to say he wanted to stay in the game, he said: “I think that’s probably fair to say, I obviously love the game.”

The play on Jorgensen comes at the worst possible time for RA, who are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding the future of the Melbourne Rebels.

RA CEO Phil Waugh is coming under increasing pressure, with the code struggling financially and players being picked off by rivals codes. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Having taken out an $80m loan last year, RA is cautious about their contracting situation given they don’t know whether the Rebels will be in the competition beyond next year after falling into voluntary administration.

The Rebels are also threatening legal action against the national body, saying they were operating under the presumption that funds previously withheld from the Super Rugby franchise would be reinstated.

It also comes off the back of RA releasing 23 recommendations, which revealed the breakdown of trust between the governing body and the players.

In another embarrassing concession, RA chief executive Phil Waugh also revealed last year’s World Cup failure came with a $2.6m unapproved budget blow out.

Since taking over from Andy Marinos, Waugh has repeatedly said RA needed to develop a culture at the Wallabies where players wanted to stay in the code regardless of whether they could earn more elsewhere.

“I think it comes back to that piece around the Wallaby environment and culture – the success of the Wallabies – and that our players are desperate to be a part of it,” Waugh said last month.

“[We hope] that goes a long way to hopefully not having to pay at a market rate that’s competing with the big dollars in France or in Japan.

“Because you’re actually creating a culture, an environment where players want to be a part of and will sacrifice elements of other opportunities to be a part of it.”

Jorgensen was on Wednesday ruled out of the Waratahs’ important clash against the Blues in Sydney on Saturday.