Here’s a few converts from union to league in England who did really well, quite a while ago:
Va’aiga Tuigamala, Martin Offiah, Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell, Henry Tuilagi, Jonathan Davies.

I grew up watching both rugby codes so love them both.

For anyone who doesn’t know Henry Tuilagi, he was a strong guy when he went from union to league, where he got even bigger, and when he went back to union, well see for yourself

And for any union fans who want to know how wingers should do their job, watch this:

As an English fan of Australian rugby I would like to agree with all the authors points, but I can’t. You can never write of the ABs. The way many of their players play at club level means that most players can slot into a playing style if they suddenly get picked for the ABs as kiwi clubs to a certain extent all have a similar playing style.
Australia definitely has talent, very athletic players. But sometimes they are relying on that so much they are lacking in game management at crucial points in the game. That’s an area that normally NH teams excel at. Even my rubbish England team do that, look at what our no 10 George Ford did in the world cup. Which brings me to the big problem with Aussie rugby. As hopeless as my English team are, we must have a handful at least of no 10s that are better than what’s on offer playing in Australia. Australia really needs a program to develop fly halves for the future. Carter G will get better, but he just looks really tall and cumbersome to me.
I feel sorry for David Rennie. I don’t think any other international team had such a large proportion of top players injured for so long, like you guys did.
I really hope next year is better for you guys, as it’s important for SH and world rugby to have a strong Australian team.

Well done to our Wallaby cousins! A win is a win to get the journey started.
Maybe Donaldson at 10 and Kellaway back to 15?
Because Carter G is not up to international level no 10 🙁

As a British fan of Australian rugby I watched the game and cheered your team on. Australia had loads of possession and territory in the first half. But Carter Gordon’s kicking is embarrassing. He’s just a good club player, nowhere near International standard as to what’s required from a no 10. At least if he could kick to a high percentage for conversions that would hide other flaws. But he just looks so tall and un-dynamic. He just reminds me of our English full-back Freddie Steward, tall and all legs and basically just someone who can cart up the ball a bit. Beauden Barrett appears a similar height and body type but he would run rings around Gordon C. Eddie please make a change. If a 9 and 10 are not firing the rest of the team will struggle. It must have felt really disheartening for the team to earn kicks at goal and then he kept missing.
The French didn’t bully Australia and Australia were very physical. I think not having a playmaker at 10 and someone who can boss people around and steer the ship from fly half (like Quade can) is a problem for Australia!
Vunivalu put in a lot of work. I think it was at least twice he cleared out at the ruck as he came off his wing a lot looking for work. But his natural athletic talents especially in the air will be wasted if kicking to him is done the way Carter did, nowhere near enough to the goal line, so he can run onto the ball. As for Suni’s yellow card, that was due to Jordan P pushing him over the ball.
And what is with the chatting back to the ref? I think it was twice that Australia were marched back 10 metres.
Can Kellaway play no 10? Because if Jones can’t bring in Quade or Foley, then I think it’s Kerevi in midfield (if he recovers), Marika to left wing, Marky Mark to fullback, and Kellaway to no 10
Yes fans, start laughing now … 🙂

ABs deserved winners! But mistakes by Aussies at key moments. CG missing the conversion in front of the posts. Restart not going 10 metres. Unforgivable! MKs yellow card. Kerevi not scoring. The men in gold were their own worst enemies. I think Australia really fronted up in defence and we’re aggressive tonight. Good to see the new 9 and 10 combo tried, but CG is not international standard, Cooper needs to start. And Nic White is so slow he makes our old timers at no 9 for England look fast. As for Scott Barrett telling White to be quiet, it’s because White’s leg was being held by a Kiwi forward and he couldn’t get up to tackle. A bit ridiculous that we can all see it in the replay but the officials. Nobody envies Australia having the ABs as their neighbour and having to play them so often. But the Books with Andre Esterhuizen in midfield, Ireland, France and even England should all give the ABs a run for their money

Good team and squad but Damian de Allende was not as effective as Andre Esterhuizen, he should be in the starting lineup

Even if the players buy into Eddie’s plan its not enough
He is picking some of the wrong players and being loyal to the old guard.
Just as he did when he managed our England team.
Nic W is too slow for No 9 and made some terrible decisions.
Those missed kicks by Hodge. And the open play Kicks for territory. Hopeless.
And the lineout throws 🙁
You can’t win major tests or competitions without a great kicker.
As for the wingers, they never had a chance with the pack being dominated. It was like men vs boys.
Change 9 and 10, drop Hooper as too small and old now, maybe put Hodge at 15, and Kerevi to start.
Its a must win game now against Argentina.
In reality no Aussie team was going to be within 20 points of the boks last weekend, at that stadium, with all the emotion, the brute force of that team and its ability to play to their strengths, and not inflict so many mistakes on themselves the way Australia did.
Suddenly I dont feel so bad about England’s chances.
Good luck Aussie cousins !

The analogy with cricket doesn’t work, as rugby has 2 codes, and once Union went professional then league here in the UK was doomed and the landscape changed. But league and the NRL flourished. Also Union in Australia was and never will be as big as it is in the UK.
If England/GB struggled to beat the Kangaroos in the old days with all the great players we had then, we obviously have no chance now. And watching the super league is boring compared to the standard of the NRL.
Funnily enough in the old days and with the all the hatred of League by Union fans (who are all predominantly living South of the League heartland “Up North”) there were more League fans down south than there are now.
The London Broncos and the various guises it existed in (with many Aussie players) were based at the Harlequins Rugby Union stadium in London and I watched many a match there.
Also the Kangaroos at the old Wembley stadium and other grounds, breaking our hearts with their skill, speed and running lines.
League is only propped up by money from Sky satellite who want some content.
The future of international rugby league must surely be the Pacific Islands with the natural athleticism of the players and its on Australia’s doorstep.
There is also the (Union is a religion) country of NZ where the NRL have failed to build more than one club the Warriors
The ideal outpost would have been the USA where the simplicity of League’s rules and some similarities with American Football and the sheer number of athletes could possibly help. But the Americans are obsessed with their own sports and Union has grown there with several clubs and many foreign stars going there too, and the US 7 a side team is actually one of the most exciting to watch, definitely more athletic than the English team.
So I think that only leaves the P.I. Region and NZ!

As a neutral (a Brit with a soft spot for the Aussies), i’ve paid to watch the games live here on Sky sports and currently watching the ABs giving Los Pumas a lesson.
Playing the Boks where they did Australia were never realistically going to be close by match end score-wise.
In some ways this is the best outcome for Australia so they know who should NOT be playing next match, better to know that now instead of 1st match in world cup.
If Hodge hadn’t missed those early kicks and if Nic W hadn’t kicked away the advantage. Early match moments all working against Australia.
Also the self inflicted mistakes like line out throws.
Nic White has to be dropped. Bad decision making and too slow.
Some good counter rucking at times by Australia kept the score lower than it could have been.
In some way the players who didn’t get picked for this tour and get selected next match are lucky as any Aussie team today was in for a thrashing at altitude
The reality is the Boks are far ahead of nearly everyone in being able to pick 2 world class starting 15 teams.
Tom Wright gets a lot of criticism but i thought he didn’t do too bad for a team nearly always on the back foot.
Good luck next week for the Green & Gold !

“The fact that the RFL have been such failures in London speaks to a lack of long term planning, vision and investment”
No not really. Most Londoners have no idea what Rugby of any code is. It’s a football mad country, and a football mad city. The dominant rugby code (Union) only has one London team (Harlequins) who are based near Twickenham, the national stadium. The other union team London Wasps moved up North years ago and went into financial difficulty. Then there was London Irish who are now in financial trouble. Older people who might have heard of rugby vaguely recall who Johnny Wilkinson is, but hardly know anything about Rugby Union, never mind League.
Rugby League in England started crumbling when Union turned professional in 1995. Standards started lowering as some of the biggest stars moved to Union and there was more Union on TV as it developed into a business. That’s when I stopped watching League in the UK and have only been interested since in the NRL and Origin. League in the UK is only in existence still “Up North” because Sky satellite contributes to it (not because of people paying to watch it, but Sky needs sports content to broadcast).
I will say I am lucky enough to have grown up in an era when League was the only professional rugby code, experienced live the great Kangaroos visiting England (but winning too many times), watched on tv the great club challenge matches where English clubs won sometimes, and really enjoyed bringing my Union friends ‘Up North” to Manchester to watch the Clash of the Codes in 1996 when Wigan Warriors played (smashed) Bath Rugby Union in a league game, we watched the return (under Union rules) match in London, and I dragged them to watch Wigan play in the Middlesex 7s (Union). 99.99999 % of Union fans had no idea what League was (although they knew the ex Union players in the Wigan team – Va’aiga Tuigamala, Martin Offiah, Scott Quinnell), and were blown away by Wigan’s fitness, speed, handling, strength etc.
A number of Union commentators were eating humble pie when commentating on the 1st game under League rules and at the Middlesex 7s.
But they were the old days, back to today.
If you want to develop the international game look what’s on your own doorstep. I have been more excited to watch Tonga and Samoa etc in previous years than team GB.
The physical specimens from the PI’s in Australia and in their own countries are there just ripe for development.
Just as Rugby Union is embracing the Samoan and Fijian teams into the club competitions, what has League done with it’s neighbours?
That’s the key to International rugby league 🙂

As a Brit and fan of both Union and League since the 1980s, watched plenty of live club games since the 90s and some internationals of both codes (and a fan of Australian rugby and league), i disagree about Burgess and ‘Teo. Sam was played in different positions between his club and international squad. A Union bred player would never have to switch between centre and forward. And he was the hardest hitter to wear an English jersey. I saw Ben play twice and watched all his televised games and he was a great centre.
Both codes display the great style of Australian rugby which is exciting running rugby. Collectively Australia has the best group of players if you combined the talent across both codes. If only the impossible could happen and peace existed between both codes there. We had the cross code challenge back in the dsy between Wigan RL and Bath RU when Union was amateur. What a great couple of games. But i bet if you had that and players were picked from any club in each code, i reckon the union team would give the league team a good run for their money

Ex-English players and English fans talking nonsense. And I am English! Most of the time I disagree with the ref Jaco, but he made the correct decision based on the law. Look at the playback to the point where Keenan was running onto the ball to catch it and where on the pitch Steward is, he has plenty of time to lower his body height and he never did. The responsibility is on the tackler to lower his height, that’s the law, not Jaco’s made up point of view.
As for protecting yourself as the tackler, there is no law for that and forwards wouldn’t run head first diving into the breakdown if that was so. If the shoe was on the other foot English players and fans would be saying give the Irish player a red.
I like Clive Woodward but him trying to describe the situation with his words was wrong. He can barely get his words out coherently.
Red card every day
Ireland deserved winners
Improvement from England
Roll on the World Cup!

Sorry Brett but your logic doesn’t add up.
You want to limit how many subs can come on AND tweak the laws, both which will increase fatigue.
Fatigue can lead to injury full stop.
Anyone who has played competitive sport knows this, never mind the brutal sport that is rugby.
If you want to increase fatigue so as hoping to make the game more exciting then change the rules.
That’s what rugby league did. Also they bring on subs to keep the pace high.
I think I heard on some show very recently (might have been the great kiwi rugby union show The Breakdown) that the NRL said players need to reduce weight by 5kg.
So I don’t understand why I have seen several discussions on the Roar that the way to make our sport more exciting is to make players more tired and try keep the starting 15 on the field for 80 minutes. With respect to everyone who disagrees with me, i think that stance is stupid, but everyone is entitled to their opinion, especially when they are a spectator instead of spending 80 minutes tackling 120kg forwards

I was lucky enough to watch Jason Robinson play a number of games live for Wigan in league and then for his union club Sale and internationally for England. I also saw Va’aiga Tuigamala play live several times for Wigan and then for Newcastle when he moved back to Union. Both were incredible to see live, even better than on tv. But i really would have loved to see Greg Inglis/GI play in the centres for the Wallabies. Indigenous players have a style of running near full speed and making it look effortless.

KB and Foley are past their prime. KB is slow now. Hodge at 10? He’s a big body and can defend yet would you even mention him in the same sentence as Richie M who he would be up against. I reckon Kellaway would make a better 10 than Hodge.
Australia look such underdogs because of 9,10, the midfield and 15. If Noah cant play they may as well play KB, Foley, Tate and bring on Vunivalu and get Foley to pepper the ABs with some bombs for Vunivalu to outjump the AB defence. If that does not work after 30/40 minutes just replace any of them as needed

Rugby is way down in the pecking order in Ireland. He made that comment only to try strengthen his points I think.
In Australia you have some fantastic stadiums. Some of them here in England for the Premier teams are rubbish and small. The Harlequins ground only has a capacity of 14,800. Some others look like sheds.
The big issue in Australia is how much talent is in the NRL instead of Union. If all the potential Australian talent for backs were only playing union you would have the best backs for the 1st team and the greatest depth of squad for backs in the world.
Someone in Australia needs to organise a tournament with the game of union but with the scrums of league and throw ins instead of lineouts, and get league players to try playing unlimited tackles and mauls etc. Maybe that should be the new version of union without scrum resets and lineouts. Because union forwards can do all the other exciting running, passing and tackling that we like!

I don’t understand why RA would risk him playing in 7s??
He’s a great centre in the 15 a side game and one of the best in the world, but I watched all the 7s games and he is just too big and slow.
Now that young guy Dietrich Roache, he is a runner. You need more like him in amongst the other good players that you have

This is very sad news 🙁
As a Londoner I was an oddity as I’m a rugby fan of both codes (Rugby League is only played really in the Northern part of England).
So being a fan of both Rugby and League I was overjoyed when Inga joined Wigan (the League team I supported).
It would be difficult to understand the gulf between the 2 codes in the UK at the time unless you were a fan of both and watched games every week. Union was still amateur (they claimed) at the time and the fitness, skills etc of League was on another level.

I used to watch club and international games of both codes and it was great (on my own though as I had no friends that liked rugby, yes that’s sad)!

There was a London team (at one time they were called the London Broncos) and I would go watch whenever Wigan, Bradford or Leeds came down. I saw Inga and my other Wigan heroes many times. I got Inga’s autograph once, he was absolutely huge.

After Inga joined Wigan there were 2 matches organised called the cross-code challenge between Wigan (the best League team at the time) and Bath (best Union team at the time).

First game was up north under League rules and the second down south under Union. I was working at a company at the time where there were two Union fans and supported Bath. So we went to both games. They knew nothing about League at all. The first game was at manchester city’s football ground and we went into the bar before the game, me wearing my Wigan jersey and my friends in their Bath jerseys. Everyone in the bar had Wigan jerseys on. I don’t know where he other Bath fans were, but my friends felt uncomfortable, even afraid. I did also ! Then the Wigan fans started talking to them, telling them how Wigan wee going to thrash them, which they did.

My friends got to see Inga and Wigan work their magic and were quite simply speechless afterwards on the journey back to London.

As well as the return match under Union rules I also attended what’s called the Middlesex 7’s. The rugby union 7’s event at Twickenham.

Wigan were the first League team invited. I went alone wearing my Wigan jersey. Sitting amongst the many Union fans I had a good chat, many saying Wigan would get thrashed. And in one way they were right to have hope as in the build up Wigan players said they had no idea about the rules and you could see that during the games.

But i knew their strength, speed and skill would more than compensate, which it did.
Some fans before the event started told me that they were interested in seeing Inga. None of them had seen any League games so they were simply blown over when they saw what him and the Wigan team did.

Here’s a sample of the mayhem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHVd1vHnFA

I think it was in Jason’s Robinson’s book where I read about the profound effect Inga had on his life at what was his lowest points in his life. It was also stated that either when he joined Wigan or when he left and joined Newcastle Rugby Union (when Union just started being Professional) that the players were blown away by Inga’s professionalism and preparation in his training. Apparently he also organised with the strength coach the redesign of the gym and equipment. Apparently he was the strongest lifter, no surprise.

Like many people of a certain age I miss those memories, especially of Inga, and Wigan and when League was worth watching (as Super League is nowhere near the NRL standard).

My thoughts are with Inga’s family and I’ll take comfort that I was a huge Inga fan, got to meet him in person and watch him in live games for Wigan, and follow him in Union and watch whenever Newcastle’s games were on TV and I wanted to see how the ex-League player would be running through Union players and putting them on their backs.

Inga, my prayers are with you, thank you for all the great memories. God Bless you

I am happy to be told that what I understand as the facts are wrong 🙂
Its reported that the Australian NH tour games are outside the recognised international window and therefore UK teams are not releasing players to play against SH teams. Maybe this applies to other countries too such as Japan. Clubs are all desperate to win and pay the wages therefore…….

As an Englishman who is a fan of Australian rugby well done guys ! I hope you can develop a long term backup for Kerevi because without our equivalent Manu Tuilagi England are never the same.
What a find in Kellaway. Put him at 15, then for the wings you have Marika, Daugunu and Vinivalu when they both recover. Also what a find Ikitau is.

What….! This is terrible treatment of Cooper :(. At least give him one game. This game. To show what he can do. Noah is young enough to have plenty of international games ahead of him to sit this one out and he has made a number of mistakes being inexperienced.
Everyone was excited of the prospect of Kerevi and Cooper playing together (except the AB’s).
Rennie will only learn his lesson about choosing players by losing this game, same situation we have in England with Eddie Jones.

This is actually a non article.
As an Englishman and fan of both Union and League then what’s suggested is fantasy. I love League but Super League here is boring and I stopped watching it many years ago. Its nowhere near as good as the NRL. Once Union became professional a number of the best League players went to Union and the talent was never replaced. Then the quality of Union players improved at the same time to tilt the scales onto Unions side. League teams became more in debt and its only kept alive by revenue from Sky satellite for broadcasting. Nobody is investing in league here so this stupid article (not the author) is just fantasy. If you want to improve Union in Australia improve the coaching at junior level and professional club level. Watch any game of NZ vs Aussie either club level or international. The Kiwis are better at decision making, tactics and getting the basics right. The same mistakes made by the Aussie Super Rugby teams are made by the Wallabies. The reason the Kiwis can lose top players from the starting 15 and others replace them and the Abs still win is because the Kiwis get the basics right at club level more often than their Aussie counterparts and that translates to international level.

As an Englishman who’s a fan of Aussie rugby of both codes I really hope rugby improves there. Interesting article. I guess all the disagreements by people commenting represent the issues of rugby there with no clear solution to improvements. The article comments about rugby growing globally not really accurate. Here in London after not working anymore in an area where most of the financial and legal companies are based I never get to speak to other rugby fans. And compared to some of the stadiums you have some of our rugby stadiums (even in the top league premiership) here are rubbish. Rugby clubs here are probably surviving only by money from broadcasting companies as fan numbers before covid were never really large with the small stadiums. And when less kids start playing in the private schools here the numbers will reduce. A lot of teams were mentioned in this article. I hope you guys can sort out the issues there. If the best players from rugby and league there were playing union you would definitely be world champions

Let’s hope eventually they are a rugby super power in the 15 man game so international rugby gets more competitive and exciting. Look at the International Rugby 7’s. I’m an Englishman but I watch to see Fiji and USA, by far the most exciting teams

Great article Will! Australian rugby has many issues that need to be sorted out from school to club level. But it can start by winning International games with the foreign players you mentioned be able to play. As a Brit I love Australian rugby but I do laugh at some of the people who post comments who don’t understabd that the top French and English club teams would beat their Australian counterparts. And the top Australian players overseas are exposed to a different style of playing and coaching. Please get Kerevi, Skelton and Arnold playing. And people don’t go on about maybe Kerevi not being a Sonny Bill Williams or other type of player. He’s great at what he does and your midfield is way too lightweight. Before Nonu improved in the last few years he was all power and a bit one dimensional but still very effective. Get your foreign based players included and start wining again!!