Xavier Willison found his voice after a breakout 2025 season, but was looking to step up his game with the impending departure of forward leader Payne Haas.
Already, Haas has been a key mentor for the emerging Polynesian NRL star, with his guidance helping see the 23-year-old make his New Zealand debut in the Pacific Championships last year, having previously represented Cook Islands.
With this being a Rugby League World Cup year with games hosted in the southern hemisphere, Willison was hoping to get a recall for New Zealand, where a possible face off against Haas and his Samoa team loomed in the finals.
“That was one of the better experiences for me, I got to represent my family and my country, which is something every kid growing up in New Zealand wants to do,” Willison said.
“Any kid playing rugby league wants to represent their country – so I was so grateful to be able to do that and hopefully I keep doing the same, what I’m doing, and hopefully get back there at the end of the year.”
While keen to continue his representative journey in the black jersey, Willison saw Round 3’s upcoming Multicultural Round as another opportunity to reflect on his family and Polynesian heritage, as well as to look deeper into his Cook Islands connections.
But first, he was determined to do his part to get the Broncos’ premiership defence back on track, remaining as versatile as he can to bullock through the middle or be a fearsome edge runner as he showed at times in the World Club Challenge and against the Panthers in Round 1.
“I like playing edge because there are little blokes to run at, but at the end of the day, I’ll just do whatever is needed of me and I’ll do that to the best of my ability," Willison said.
"If I need to play edge or middle, I just need to make sure I practice both."
Speaking ahead of their Round 2 match against the Eels, coach Broncos Michael Maguire said he had been impressed by the work of Willison, who has already been making strong strides to push into the starting side.
“He’s pushing hard, he's doing well,” Maguire said.
“The balance of our group at the moment is one thing, that's why we're sort of rolling with what we've got.
“But Big X is very capable now to push himself into that space.
“It's just getting the right balance.
“Sometimes one of the others might drop back, because of the ability of what we have now with the forward pack.”
Broncos v Panthers - Round 1, 2026
Many Broncos fans were also looking to Willison to continue his development to try fill the void Haas will leave in future years. For the big man himself, he was going to take every learning opportunity from the man who mentored him into realising his dream of Test footy.
“Us Polynesian boys growing up in New Zealand, we can be a bit a bit quiet and standoffish, but to have a big leader like him at the club that helps you express your background, it’s good,” Willison said.
“When I first came here, I came from a union background, so he helped a lot and coming through last year he helped a lot, but now I’m focused and sort of know what I need to do.
“I’ve just got to keep doing what I do best, coming to training, ticking every box I can, working hard behind the scenes and let everything else do its dividends.
“Payne plays some big minutes, so I want to get my gas tank up a bit more so I can play big minutes and keep doing what I’ve doing.
“I’ll obviously still take tips off him this year, he’s the best in the game.”
Match: Broncos v Eels
Round 2 -
home Team
Broncos
15th Position
away Team
Eels
17th Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
