The 29-year-old is one of the best back-rowers in the game, and only returned from the Kangaroos’ successful Ashes tour on Thursday.
Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed Crichton is leaning towards switching codes, and has attracted interest from Japan.
Crichton featured in Scots College’s First XV, and made the Australian Schoolboys side in 2014, where he played as a centre and a No.8. Many of his best friends are rugby players, and he was sighted in Europe last year watching the Wallabies on their Spring Tour.
The Japanese League One competition runs from December to May, with elite players earning north of $1m a season. The fact Crichton has not played a Test in rugby union would make him appealing for Japanese clubs, who are only allowed to have play three “Category C” capped foreign stars on the field at any one time.
By heading to Japan immediately after the 2026 NRL season, Crichton could also theoretically give himself a chance of winning a call-up for the Wallabies for the World Cup in Australia at the end of 2027. RA recently announced they were prepared to select as many overseas-based players as they need at any one time.
But if Crichton is really keen to play at a home Rugby World Cup, his best chance to impress incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss could be playing in a Super Rugby side in 2027 and being engaged in the Australian rugby system, according to informed sources in Australian rugby.
Crichton’s management is likely to sit down with Rugby Australia officials in the next fortnight, once the Wallabies’ spring tour is over, to discuss a possible deal with a Super Rugby franchise.
Super Rugby clubs have already reached out to Crichton’s management to gauge his interest.
Crichton attracted interest from the Western Force in 2023, only for negotiations to drag out and eventually fall over.
“We had contracting deadlines missed on multiple occasions, which is just bad business,” Crichton’s manager David Rawlings told this masthead at the time. “This wasn’t a money grab. He was keen to go. He thought he could help. I feel for the Western Force. They would have got themselves a potential world-class No.12.”
Signing on with a Super Rugby side for 2027 could pave the way for Crichton to be called into the Wallabies squad for the 2026 spring tour, just weeks after finishing up in the NRL, as former Roosters Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii did this time last year.
But a tilt at making the Wallabies’ World Cup squad, via a domestic path, would likely require Crichton to play for less money than he could earn in Japan. Informed sources said he would be looking at around $500-600,000 a year in Australian rugby.
Whether RA makes a play for Crichton remains to be seen, but the Wallabies don’t have great depth in the midfield positions.
John Eales Medal winner Len Ikitau and Hunter Paisami are the leading inside centre options, with Suaalii seemingly locked in at No.13. But there remains healthy debate in rugby circles about whether Suaalii is better suited to playing on the wing or at fullback.
Crichton is determined to make a call on his future before the NRL season kicks off next March. Should he pursue rugby, he would most likely rule himself out of contention for the Kangaroos’ own World Cup in Australia at the end of next year.
There is zero interest in rebel competition R360, while England remains an outside option, especially because his wife, Chloe, who will welcome the couple’s first child in March, is from Manchester.
Another Roosters player, Mark Nawaqanitawase, will return to rugby at the end of next season, but has already proven himself in the Wallabies jersey, and any decision to pursue the riches in Japan or French rugby would not impact his own Cup chances.
Meanwhile, the Perth Bears have been rejected by Jayden Campbell, with the playmaker set to ink an extension that will keep him on the Gold Coast until the end of 2030.
It emerged this week that the Bears had tabled Campbell a five-year, $6m offer to be one of the faces of the new franchise.
But Campbell, 25, will stay put at the Titans, who confirmed on Friday Queensland Origin forward Beau Fermor had signed a new three-year deal.
