news-engine

London Broncos may have lost their first Championship game of the season but the club have not lost any of their sense of ambition, with the latest reports suggesting that they tried to sign cross-code star Israel Folau ahead of the 2027 season. The Broncos will be hoping that they are in Super League for 2027 but they, like a number of top-tier clubs, face the nervous wait of seeing where they place on the IMG gradings that will ultimately dictate which league they play in. That was the case last year but the lack of Super League assurance didn’t prevent them from making some splash signings with Dean Hawkins, Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Siliva Havili all leaving the NRL to join the project. Per reports from Channel Nine, London had tried to make former Catalans Dragons man Israel Folau their big splash signing for 2027 but the 37-year-old is expected to hang up the boots instead. Currently playing rugby union out in Japan, Folau has been capped 73 times by Australia in the 15-man code but he was originally a rugby league star, featuring five times at State of Origin level having burst onto the scene as a teenager before crossing codes to Australian Rules Football initially, and then rugby union. He briefly returned to rugby league when signing for Catalans Dragons, for whom he played 15 games in the 2020 season, but he’d make a quick rugby union return. Per Channel Nine’s report, Folau ‘recently knocked back an offer to make a return to league with the London Broncos’ with the Championship club’s ambition showing no limits. Had they been able to snag him, Folau would fall into the bracket of senior stars making the move to England next year alongside the likes of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Daly Cherry-Evans, the former of which was also a duel-code international. Folau had attempted to make an NRL return with Wests Tigers earlier this year, something that may have encouraged the Broncos to make an approach, but it’s now expected that he will hang up the boots on an illustrious career. NRL lowball Super League, Hull FC’s gargantuan signing, and new title favourites – Click here to watch this week’s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show