The 29-year-old is off-contract with New Zealand Rugby at the end of the year but is currently on a one-year deal with Japanese side Red Hurricanes. The Japanese Top League season will conclude on May 23.<\/p>\n
It's understood the Tricolours are hopeful of signing the Perenara to a one-year deal worth close to $130,000<\/a>, to play out the remainder of the 2021 season with them once he becomes available.<\/p>\n It's expected Perenara will try his luck at hooker for the Roosters after they recently parted ways with club champion Jake Friend, who was forced into retirement.<\/p>\n Smith, who's started the season at hooker for the Storm, revealed Perenara had been asking the Melbourne star for advice, while also seeking video footage on other NRL hookers.<\/p>\n "He messages a bloke like myself in February and he was saying he was going to make the code switch," Smith said on Sunday Night with Matty Johns<\/em> on Fox League.<\/p>\n "He was asking how does he physically and mentally prep his body. He was asking me to send him clips of [Penrith hooker] Api Koroisau to learn deception around the ruck.<\/p>\n "He's someone who's already been around professional sport for so long, asking somebody like me \u2013 a nobody \u2013 it's awesome.<\/p>\n "It just shows he's got a lot of respect for the game of rugby league. He messages us every game we play about who went well and stuff and he's a great supporter of it and it can only be good for the game."<\/p>\n Perenara, a veteran of 69 Tests, is no stranger to the game of rugby league.<\/p>\n He's a first cousin of former NRL player Marcus as well as current referee and former star Henry.<\/p>\n Perenara's former teammate, dual-code great Sonny Bill Williams, said the rugby union halfback's switch to the NRL would be "special".<\/a><\/p>\n "I know him personally and if he came over here he would be under no illusion the work that would need to be put in to be a successful rugby league player," Williams told Nine on Friday.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Melbourne Storm hooker Brandon Smith says the rumoured NRL switch surrounding All Blacks star TJ Perenara is legitimate, revealing the rugby union halfback has been […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59657,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59655\/revisions\/59657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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