Payne Haas
Payne Haas (born 2 December 1999) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australia at international level. He has played for the New South Wales in the State of Origin series and the Prime Minister's XIII. Background Haas is Samoan descent. Haas became a Muslim in early 2019 at the age of 19. Payne is eligible to play International Rugby League for the Australia national rugby league team, Samoa national rugby league team and the Philippines national rugby league team. Haas has represented the Philippines at under 16s level. He played junior rugby league for the Woodberry Warriors, before moving to the Gold Coast, Queensland at age 13. He attended rugby league school Keebra Park State High. Haas is the nephew of former Newcastle Knights and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks player Mark Taufua. Haas’s younger brother Klese Haas, plays for the Gold Coast Titans. His mother, Uiatu "Joan" Taufua, was convicted and sentenced to nine months prison for assaulting two security guards at The Star casino in July 2022. In December that year, she was involved in a car crash that led to three deaths, after allegedly fleeing police earlier. She was subsequently charged with three counts of manslaughter and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, evading police and driving without a driver’s licence. She remains in custody. Playing career Early years In 2016, Haas played for the Australian Schoolboys. In September 2016, he signed a 3-year contract with the Brisbane Broncos until the end of 2019, after weighing up offers from 10 NRL clubs, plus scholarship offers from American football college teams. In 2017, he played for the Broncos' NYC team. After impressing for the Broncos NYC side throughout the year, he was called in to act as an Andrew Fifita "clone" at a Queensland State of Origin opposed training session before game three of the 2017 series. In September 2017, he was named at prop in the NYC Team of the Year. Haas scored nine tries in 18 games. 2018 In 2018, Haas played for the Broncos' Queensland Cup feeder side, Wynnum Manly Seagulls. In round 8 of the 2018 NRL season, he made his NRL debut for the Broncos against the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Commentator Phil Gould remarked that his debut game was "the birth of a superstar." He would go on to play two more games before missing the remainder of the season with an injured shoulder. In July 2018, the Broncos re-signed Haas on a 6-year contract. 2019 Haas, while fasting for his first ever Ramadan after converting to Islam in early 2019, scored the first try of his NRL career against the Sydney Roosters in round 10 on Friday 17 May 2019 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. On 26 May, Haas was selected in the New South Wales Blues Origin squad for Game 1 of the 2019 State of Origin series. This makes him the second most inexperienced player to play