Who Will Sign Jarryd Hayne?

The race to sign Jarryd Hayne has entered a new phase following the withdrawal of the NSW Waratahs rugby union franchise from negotiations on Tuesday. Waratah's Chief Executive Andrew Hore told Fox sports his team was not interested in the "quick fix" solution of signing Jarryd Hayne and would instead invest in youth development, infrastructure and "building the game of rugby union for all shapes and sizes."

"We think the issues in our game are that broad and deep that we want to focus on resolving those, and when you've already got 10-plus Wallabies — plus Israel Folau in our team — we feel that there's enough star-power there at this stage.

"Maybe it's about utilising their skillset more, while at the same time increasing investment into the things that are going to make us a great rugby state once again," he said.

The Waratahs looked the favourite to sign Hayne following his failed bid to make the Fiji Sevens Olympic Rugby Team. NSW's current attacking weapon, Israel Folau, had thrown his support behind Hayne joining the club in June, telling AAP, "I certainly think if he was to come and play a 15-man code, he would do quite well. He's naturally talented to pick up the game."

Hayne and Folau grew up together in the south-west housing commission belt of Minto where they attended the same Mormon church. This is the second attempt to reunite the players at a professional club after Parramatta failed to lure Folau there back in 2012.

Hayne has not ruled out signing for another Australian rugby union club though he will face a financial penalty after representing Fiji in the rugby sevens recently. As a result of declaring his allegiance to Fiji he can no longer play for the Wallabies, which also prevents the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) organisation from topping up any contract offered to him by a provincial team.

The Parramatta Eels, Hayne's one and only club prior to his switch to the San Francisco 49ers, are once more the front-runners to land him. Hayne spent his entire junior career in the club's development system before making his first grade debut for the club as an 18 year old. Prior to that he was one of three kids raised by a single mother in a nearby commission tower. His father is the former Auckland Warriors centre, Manoa Thompson. Hayne says the experience of growing up in the housos motivated him to make a career as a professional footballer.

"I always dreamt of never living there. My biggest thing as a kid was, I didn't want my kids to grow up where I grew up and see the things I saw and that was a huge motivator. That was one of those things that I was willing to do whatever I had to do (to succeed)," says Hayne.

Hayne spent eight seasons at the Eels before his departure to the NFL in 2015. In that period he won every accolade the sport has to offer, including the Dally M Rookie Of The Year (2006), The Dally M Winger Of The Year (2007), The Dally M Player Of The Year (2009, 2014) and the Dally M Fullback of the year (2009, 2014). He was also part of the last State of Origin team to beat QLD in 2014 as well as representing Australia and Fiji in the test arena (the NRL has different allegiance laws to rugby union).

Hayne represented a rare bastion of old school loyalty during his time with the Eels, in a game that's largely been stripped of it due to salary cap restrictions. In 2009 he knocked back $1.5 million a season from the Greater Western Sydney AFL franchise to remain at Parramatta on a deal worth an estimated 1/3 of that. He has said his only dream "was to buy his mother a house," something he achieved shortly after making his first grade debut. "Everything else was a bonus," he has said.

Rival NRL clubs The Sydney Roosters, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Newcastle Knights have all withdrawn from the race to sign Hayne leaving just Parramatta and the Gold Coast Titans. Despite his loyalty and freakish ability, Hayne's time with the Eels was marred by off-field incidents and what he admitted was a "bad attitude" in his early seasons with the club. Speaking off the record, one former Parramatta great told Vice back in 2014, "If I were still here (playing at the club) he wouldn't be here," referring to Hayne's effect on team culture.

Former Parramatta Eels, State of Origin and Australian test representative, Nathan Hindmarsh also called on the NRL not to use their discretionary fund to top up Hayne's salary in a bid lure him back to the game.

"I don't know about that fund, I'm not too sure about it," Hindmarsh said. "If someone has decided to chase another code, and then they want to come back, surely they come back on a level playing term. I know I'm contradicting myself saying we need to get him back, but I would prefer they used the fund on something else. I would rather see it used on something else than on blokes - I'm not going to say turned their backs on the game, but have chosen to leave the game for whatever reason. I find it hard to spend overs on those players to bring them back to the game that they left. That's me."

Hayne had intended to chase his dream in the NFL as far back as 2011 via the college system but the failure to complete the 12th grade meant he was ineligible. Hayne's turmoil during his early years with the Eels culminated in a shooting attempt on his life outside a nightclub in Kings Cross in 2009. The incident occurred after Hayne and two of his teammates, Junior Paulo and Weller Hauraki, had stepped in to defend drunken St George Illawarra skipper, Mark Gasnier in a brawl with members of a local bikie gang. The incident is said to have played a pivotal role in Hayne's attitude adjustment and the playing resurgence that led him to become one of the game's all-time greats, all by the age of 26.

As it stands the Parramatta Eels, Hayne's most likely landing place, are currently battling through one of the most scandal-plagued seasons in the NRL's history, ranging from pending domestic violence charges, to dinners with high-profile gangsters, prescription drug overdoses, multiple mid-season player walk-outs, and Kieren Foran's alleged two-hour $75k betting splurge. The mid-season departure of highly paid playmaker, Kieren Foran, is said to have freed up money under the salary cap to lure Hayne back to the club.