Parramatta centre Timana Tahu on Tuesday night completed one of the great U-turns in sport when he announced his defection to rugby union.

Tahu will link with the NSW Waratahs for the 2008 Super 14 competition after agreeing to a four-year deal with the Australian Rugby Union.

His move comes exactly a month after the 26-year-old rubbished the game of rugby and ruled out a code switch.

A veteran of 11 State of Origin matches for NSW and five Tests for Australia, Tahu said he would not even consider playing rugby as a last resort, claiming he had no interest in handling the ball only "two times in a game".

"I like being competitive and I like to have the ball in my hands," Tahu said at the time.

"That would probably be the most stressful thing - the game's close and you want to do something and you can't even get the ball because they're very structured.

"Being a centre or winger, you touch the ball two times in a game and I don't really want to be doing that."

Tahu even went as far as to say he would not bother holding talks with ARU officials, such was his disinterest in the 15-man-a-side game.

He claimed his priority was to stay at Parramatta, and with Penrith and Cronulla also both reportedly interested in his services, a move to rugby appeared the furthest thing from Tahu's mind.

"I don't know if I'd (even) talk to rugby," he said.

"Probably by then I'll just sign up with an NRL club ... it wouldn't even be an option to go to union.

"For me, it's happiness first, where you're more comfortable.

"They've got heaps of money and they can blow any NRL club out of the water with any player they want but then it comes down to expectation.

"I think that's too much pressure if you want to do that. You're going to have everyone watching you and you make one mistake, you're probably going to get pounded for it the rest of your career."

All that appears to have changed now; Tahu becoming the first high-profile rugby league convert since Clinton Schifcofske's decision to join the Queensland Reds midway through last year.

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