It has been no secret that the Melbourne Storm have lost a wealth of talent from their squad for next season, with Nicho Hynes and Dale Finucane off to the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks, Brenko Lee off to the Brisbane Broncos and Josh Addo-Carr off to the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs.

The Storm has managed to secure a couple of replacements, with promising utility Nick Meaney joining from the Bulldogs as a possible 14 and Queensland State of Origin winger Xavier Coates arriving from the Broncos to replace Addo-Carr.

However, it seems the club are looking to further boost their backline with a signing from outside Rugby League, as News Corp’s Brent Read is reporting that the Storm is in talks with New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Sevens player Will Warbrick.

“Melbourne are on the verge of another stunning trans-Tasman coup as they prepare to raid the New Zealand rugby sevens program for 193cm giant who won a silver medal with the All Blacks at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” said Read.

 
“News Corp can reveal the Storm have been in talks with Will Warbrick, a 23-year-old who was in the All Blacks side that lost the Olympic final to Fiji.

“It is understood he has been identified as a potential replacement on the wing for Josh Addo-Carr, who departed the Storm at the end of last season to join Canterbury.”

The 23-year-old has played in 11 Sevens Rugby games for the All Blacks, scoring one try.

Melbourne has of course already signed Xavier Coates to replace Josh Addo-Carr next season, so the signing of Warbrick would not be to take the New South Wales State of Origin representative’s place in the squad but to give George Jennings some competition on the other wing.

Jennings played in 18 games last season, scoring 11 tries, assisting two, breaking 53 tackles, averaging 135 running metres per game and making 87 tackles for an efficiency rate of 82.9%.

He will now have to up his game to retain his spot in Melbourne’s starting lineup, as the club looks to bring in a flyer from the All Blacks to possibly take his position.