Why Tyrone Thompson is back with Chiefs to chase All Blacks dream after NRL season in Newcastle
Saturday, 13 December 2025
Returning Chiefs hooker Tyrone Thompson refuses to label his short-lived NRL stint a failed experiment, as he goes about resuming his rugby career and pursuing an All Blacks dream.
After three seasons in Super Rugby Pacific, the 25-year-old had crossed the ditch, and crossed codes, to play with the Newcastle Knights in 2025.
He had no rugby league background, but was offered a development deal by the club, where his identical twin brother, Leo Thompson, had already made a name for himself as a powerful front-rower.
It meant a reduction in income, but a golden chance to link back up with his brother, who he had been in the same rugby teams with for the best part of 15 years growing up, and the opportunity to scratch an itch of testing himself in the 13-man game.
Read more:
‘Not apologetic’: Why Hamilton, Dunedin, New Plymouth were snubbed for ABs tests
Why new Hurricanes chair is confident about winning Super Rugby
As it transpired, it proved a tough transition. In a season where the Knights took the wooden spoon, Thompson, who, like his brother, lined up in the front row, was only able to notch three appearances, having to be content with logging another 17 in the NSW Cup, where Newcastle finished second-to-last.
“Maybe it would have been a bit better if we were more of a winning side,” Thompson admitted to the Waikato Times.
“It was unreal getting three [caps]. I did hope for more. I kind of started picking up little niggles as the season went on, I think just because I didn’t have any break from NPC into pre-season, so by the time I got to the middle of the season I was kind of blown out.
“But I enjoyed my time over there, the league scene was unreal… just the atmosphere and the hype built around their games, it’s just mean to be a part of, and how crazy their fan bases are.”
While Leo, who started out at the Canberra Raiders before cracking first-grade with Newcastle in 2022 (now 80 games) and notching five tests for the Kiwis the following two years, was announced in January as making the move to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on a four-year deal from next season, Tyrone said his brother’s exit wasn’t a catalyst for him also wanting to depart.
Rather, despite the Knights offering further opportunities, the fact a spot in their top-30 squad, or any other club’s, wasn’t on the table, helped make up Thompson’s mind that he would to return to rugby.
“That’s the way it played out, there are heaps of middles on the market as well, so that made it tough,” he acknowledged.
“By the end of the season I wanted to make a transition back.”
So, in hindsight, he doesn’t view his league move as an unsuccessful venture, then?
“Nah. Because I didn’t want to not go, and then one day say, ‘I wish I had given it a crack’.
“At least I know I’ve gone over and I’ve played a few games. And I think I’ve come back a better athlete, and a better player.
“I’ve just come back in better shape, and I think my mindset towards training’s better now. I think being with my brother had heaps to do with that, he’s pretty good around his professionalism and stuff like that.”
Naturally, with the extra running loads of league, Thompson swiftly dropped from 115kg to 108kg soon after crossing the Tasman, and is now building that back up, currently at 110kg as he balances the weight gain with the aerobic nature of pre-season in the sweltering Hamilton heat.
That comes after his agent reached out to his former Super Rugby side and, despite it being late in the contracting piece, saw new coach Jono Gibbes label his sudden availability “a pleasant surprise” and duly award Thompson one of the 38 contracts in the main squad.
“He’s a returning Chief, he knows the environment, the culture part, just the way things are done, and he had an awesome impact the last time he was there,” said Gibbes, who admired Thompson’s courage to take an opportunity to test himself elsewhere and knows he’s getting a “hungry and refreshed” player, who is “great in the contact and has good understanding of the game and where he can put himself to have an impact”.
Thompson, who has 22 caps for the Chiefs, 19 of those from the bench, said he was “grateful” to Gibbes for this one-year deal, given the franchise already had three hookers on the books, in newbie Taine Kolose and All Blacks Samisoni Taukei’aho and Brodie McAlister, a duo Thompson notes he has come to compete hard with, as the Māori All Blacks and All Blacks XV rep aims to match their test-match status.
“That’s every player’s ultimate goal, that’s definitely an ambition.”
While he hasn’t yet also signed to play NPC again with Hawke’s Bay, linking back up with the Magpies is the plan, after a Super season where he believes his league experience will certainly show some benefits.
“My footwork, that’s what would have improved,” he reckoned. “I learnt to move at a faster pace, and to last longer under fatigue.
“But it did give me more of an appreciation for union, just around the team-kind-of-sport, especially here at the Chiefs. You rely more on your team-mates in rugby than you do in rugby league.”
Spoken like a true hooker, of course, with Thompson quickly having to remember the arts of lineout throwing and pushing in scrums.
“The first day, throwing was a little bit dusty, but I think we’ve picked it back up.
“I’m going to have to get the neck used to that [scrummaging] again as well.”