The Wagga Kangaroos are soaring in 2024. Photo: Wagga Kangaroos RLFC.
Could the high-flying Wagga Kangaroos first-grade rugby league team beat the Australian Wallabies in a game of rugby union?
NRL great Bryan Fletcher said the Riverina club would run them close during a light-hearted exchange with his host on the Fox Sports Matty Johns Show on Sunday (8 September).
Matty Johns: How do you think the Kangaroos would go playing the Wallabies in rugby union?
Bryan Fletcher: The Kangaroos are a semi-professional side, so you think …
Matty Johns: No, the Australian Kangaroos.
Bryan Fletcher: Oh, I thought you meant the Wagga Kangaroos, we’d flog ’em. You’ve got to make it more even; [the Wallabies against] the Wagga Kangaroos would make it a close game.
Loading ...Wagga Kangaroos president Peter Hurst agrees with Fletcher.
“Mate, we’d definitely be competitive against the Wallabies, we wouldn’t disgrace ourselves, I’d tell you that,” he told Region.
“We’ve got a few Fijian players who have a good grounding in rugby union. Both codes have a similar ethos, just run hard and tackle hard.”
The Wallabies have had a tough run of late, conceding 67 points in a match against Argentina on the weekend – the most in the national team’s 125-year history.
By contrast, the Wagga Kangaroos are thriving at all levels.
“We had all five grades in the finals until last weekend. It’s been a charter of ours to take all grades to success, so we’re stoked with what we achieved,” Hurst said.
Both the Under 16 and 18 boys’ sides made their respective grand finals on the weekend, while the women’s side remained in the finals race with a big 24-0 win against Tumut. The men’s first-grade side beat Gundagai and will play Temora this weekend in the preliminary final.
“We’ve been plagued by a lot of injuries but we’ll give a good showing of ourselves,” Hurst said.
Battle-of-the-code matches between our top rugby league and union teams have frequently been proposed in Australia but never eventuated.
In England, the top rugby club side, Bath, played its league counterpart, Wigan, in two exhibition matches in each code back in 1996. Wigan won the league match 82-6, while Bath won the union contest 44-19.
