Sport Confidential: Rugby league, union locked in battle for teen Panthers star

Cronulla has won the signature of a talented rugby union junior - but a bigger battle is looming over another teenager regarded as a future superstar by both codes.

Rugby league has landed another hammer blow on rugby union after flying teenager Callum Grantham agreed to a long-term deal at Cronulla - but a bigger battle is looming over another teenager regarded as a future superstar by both codes.

Sport Confidential understands that Grantham - a Waratahs under-16 representative - and his agent Michael Hudson agreed to a four-year extension with the Sharks after he starred this season for their Harold Matthews Cup (under-17s) side.

The goal-kicking five-eighth was also a star in the junior athletics ranks, competing at national level over the 200m and 400m.

Young Shark Callum Grantham and fellow Newington College student Haemeasi Makasini, who has re-signed with the Wests Tigers. Picture: Instagram

Heinz Lemoto playing for Australia U18s. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

A schoolmate of Wests Tigers teenager Haemeasi Makasini at Newington College, Grantham took this year off rugby union to focus on rugby league and he has been rewarded with a new deal that will see him transition into the Sharks’ senior ranks in years to come.

As his future is settled, the battle for Penrith teenager Heinz Lemoto is set to begin in earnest. Lemoto, who is about to enter the final year of his contract at the Panthers, played alongside Makasini for the Australian schoolboys rugby union side that beat New Zealand a week ago.

Rugby union is already circling the teenager but they will need to beat a host of rugby league clubs to his signature.

Heinz Lemoto busts through some soft defence.

Heinz Lemoto makes a bellringer of a tackle.

Lemoto and his agent David Rawlings are in no hurry. Under NRL rules, he is prevented from speaking to rival clubs until round six next year.

That has given the Panthers and rugby union a rail’s run to jostle for his future in the short term. However, it seems unlikely that he or Rawlings will do anything until they gauge the interest in him from rival NRL sides, which means the fight for his signature is set to drag into the early months of next year.

Lemoto is in his final year at The Scots College.

Originally published as Sport Confidential: Rugby league, union locked in battle for teen Panthers star