Rugby league-Papua New Guinea NRL expansion team snare Luai as marquee signing

Four-times National Rugby League champion Jarome Luai was on Wednesday unveiled as the ​first official signing for the Papua New Guinea Chiefs, ​the expansion team that will enter the Australasian ‌competition ​in 2028.

Four-times National Rugby League champion Jarome Luai was on Wednesday unveiled as the ​first official signing for the Papua New Guinea Chiefs, ​the expansion team that will enter the Australasian ‌competition ​in 2028. The 29-year-old is a genuine star in the NRL and his capture is a massive coup for the Chiefs, who are backed by A$600 million ($430 million) of Australian government cash ‌as part of the country's soft power drive in the Pacific islands.

Luai, who will benefit from tax-free status in PNG, flew to the capital Port Moresby over the weekend to watch a local game with Prime Minister James Marape before agreeing a deal to play for ‌the Chiefs for up to three years from 2028. Rugby league is often described as PNG's "national religion" and Luai said the fervour ‌for the game in the island nation of some 12 million had been a major lure as he pondered giving up the last two years of his contract at Wests Tigers.

"You realise that it's bigger than a game over there and when the time comes, we'll be able to change a lot of ⁠lives for ​the better," the Samoa international told ⁠reporters in Sydney after the announcement. "It was probably more a vision, something that I resonated with, being Polynesian. There's a lot of similarities to Samoa and things ⁠like that.

"So what that team's eventually going to do for those people is just grow a nation. So that's something that resonated with me." Luai, ​a halfback or five eighth, won his four NRL titles with the Penrith Panthers before joining the rebuilding project under ⁠New Zealand great Benji Marshall at Wests.

"Jarome is a world-class player and a proven winner. Securing his signature is a big step forward for our club and for ⁠rugby ​league in Papua New Guinea," Michael Chammas, the general manager of the Chiefs, said in a statement. The plans of Chammas to reveal the club's first signing with a dramatic splash were undermined by South Sydney Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston revealing on Tuesday ⁠that he too had agreed terms to join the Chiefs.

Johnston, who has Papuan heritage through his grandmother and has played 12 tests ⁠for the country, became the NRL's ⁠all-time top try scorer last month, triggering a pitch invasion which included Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Albanese's government has been an enthusiastic backer of the project to bring the NRL to PNG as ‌it looks to ‌push back on China's growing influence in the Pacific islands.