Code-hopping centre rejects chance to stay in Top 14 to move to Chiefs

Racing 92 inside centre Joey Manu is set to return to the NRL when his contract with the Top 14 giants runs out at the end of the season, and it appears he is set to sign for the expansion franchise PNG Chiefs.

The Chiefs are set to join the NRL in 2028 and have made signing Manu, who left the Sydney Roosters two years ago for Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz in Japan’s Rugby League One, a priority.

The former NRL superstar had been in talks with Montpellier before opting to join former All Blacks coach Hansen at Toyota, where, after scoring a try on his debut against Kubota Spears, he went on to cross the whitewash a further ten times in his other 17 appearances.

Manu, who can play outside centre and wing, won back-to-back NRL Grand Finals in 2018 and 2019 with the Roosters, and was looking to use Japan as a springboard to attract one of New Zealand’s five Super Rugby Pacific franchises to sign him.

The 30-year-old has made no secret of his long-term plan to follow in the footsteps of Sonny Bill Williams to become a cross-code international, but instead ended up in the French capital, where he scored only one try in 22 appearances.

The ex-New Zealand league international flew to Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, on Monday for a guided tour of the proposed facilities and could be tempted into signing, with all salaries tax-free.

Manu had been a target for the New Zealand Warriors, but Racing insisted that he would be seeing out the final year of his contract, and it seems almost certain that he will be joining the Chiefs for their inaugural season in 2028.

He is, however, tipped to join an NRL franchise for the final few months of the 2027 campaign, once his deal with Racing runs out, in a bid to get himself up to speed ahead of a potential move to the Chiefs.