In The Footsteps of Jarryd Hayne, Two More Rugby League Superstars Are Trying to Crack the NFL

The Hayne Plane may have stalled before it really got into the air, but two more of Australasia's biggest name rugby league stars are again lining up to pursue NFL futures.

Following the Four Nations Final in Liverpool over the weekend, North Queensland Cowboys back rower Jason Taumalalo and Cronulla Sharks winger Valentine Holmes flew to Los Angeles, from the United Kingdom, for an official NFL trial yesterday.

Both players had received interest from NFL sides throughout the NRL season, and headed to the States with each club's full blessing. The trial will take place, in front of a range of scouts, on November 26, according the Australian Associated Press.

A highlights package of Jason Taumalolo in action for the North Queensland Cowboys. Source: Youtube.

Taumalolo and Holmes are both rugby league superstars in the prime of their NRL careers; certainly on par with Hayne, who turned down a big money contract with the Parramatta Eels to try and crack the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers last March.

Famously, Hayne made the 49ers regular season team last September – but was placed on waivers after a handful of underwhelming performances. He'd 'retire' from the NFL in December, in an attempt to make the Fijian Olympic rugby sevens team.

He wouldn't, and now finds himself back in the NRL with the Gold Coast Titans, whom he signed a two-year contract with, and, recently, struggling with a phone porn hack.

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While Holmes' sheer skill and speed as an outside back (he scored 19 tries in 23 games this season) could appeal to NFL scouts as a future wide receiver, it is Taumalolo who looks the more likely of the two to strike an pro deal.

Along with Melbourne Storm half Cooper Cronk, the 23-year-old New Zealander won the Dally M Medal this year for the NRL's finest player.

Powerfully built and hard to bring down, the back rower is arguably rugby league's best ball carrier at the moment – and, with enough coaching, could become a pretty solid running back for a NFL team.

"I'm not surprised NFL clubs are interested in Taumalolo," Paul Shepherd, one of Australia's top American football coaches and scouts, recently told the Courier-Mail.

"I could get him a workout with every NFL club tomorrow. I deal with NFL clubs regularly and their scouts always say to me, 'How do we get our hands on your Polynesian players?'

"Jason Taumalolo would be absolutely fantastic in the NFL. If he is prepared to fly over to the US, there would be lots of NFL coaches who would want him."

A highlights package of Valentine Holmes in action for the Cronulla Sharks. Source: Youtube.

Taumalolo had talked of his interest in the NFL in the past, but played down suggestions of attempting to make the transformation when he won his Dally M.

"My plan is to retire playing rugby league, and that hasn't changed over the last little while," he said to media, last month.

Outside Hayne, South Sydney forward Thomas Burgess trained with the New York Giants last year, but wasn't signed. He returned to the Rabbitohs to play this season.

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Off the back of the Hayne and Burgess experiments with gridiron, Taumalolo and Holmes's trials could potentially kick off of a wave of rugby league players attempting to make it in the NFL.

You could imagine Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater, when fit, as a handy punt returner, while Canberra Raiders second rower Josh Papalli and Titans centre Konrad Hurrell have the running back bulk and build.