Payne Haas has reportedly made the decision to represent Samoa in the upcoming Pacific Championship.
It has been speculated for the last seven months that Haas has been weighing up the possibility of deflecting from the Kangaroos jersey to put on the Samoan blue.
Today it was confirmed by Code Sports that the 25 year old Brisbane Broncos prop will in fact play for Samoa.
Haas debuted for the Brisbane Broncos in 2018 as a 19 year old and has since built himself an impressive resume.
Haas was named Brisbane Broncos player of the year for five years straight from 2019 to 2023.
He has represented NSW 15 times and the Brisbane Broncos an impressive 135 times.
He is widely regarded as the best prop in rugby league and has won the Dally M prop of the year award four times (2019,2021,2022,2023) in his eight year career.
Payne Haas has run out for Australia in four occasions and now looks to add the Toa Samoa jersey to his long list accolades.
All eyes are now on Queensland duo Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui who were also rumoured in April to also choose Samoa over Australia.
Headlines from Australia media are critical of the move by Haas to represent his country of ethnicity and cultural heritage.
Samoa has a mere population of 200,000 people compared to Australia’s 27 million.
In 2024, there were 174,343 adult and 94,297 child rugby league players registered in Australia, according to Ausplay. That’s a total of 268,640.
Australia has more registered rugby league players than Samoa’s population.
