We must be very clear that our priority is for the All Blacks to play international

New Zealand Rugby has confirmed talks are under way to stage a cross-code match between the All Blacks and the Kangaroos.NZR chief executive Mark Robinson verified reports Wallabies vs All Blacks an historic hybrid game could take place later in the year as a money-making venture, bringing the pinnacle international teams from rugby union and rugby league together.

Robinson said the coronavirus pandemic had forced all sports to be innovative to address a financial hammering.

“We must be very clear that our priority is for the All Blacks to play international rugby for the remainder of the year and we’ve talked about the uncertainty around that,” Robinson said.

“But we’ve had the option put to us of this hybrid game with the Kangaroos, and it’s one of many different scenarios in a unique year like this that we are considering with being innovative and having a focus on trying to consider revenue-generating ideas at this time.”

Some early reports suggest the game would be a compromised 14-a-side affair but other details of how the match would be played are still to be clarified.

Such a match would probably be played in December, when the top Australian players had completed their scheduled State of Origin commitments the previous month and the All Blacks had potentially played Test matches – most probably against the Wallabies.

Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga told the Courier Mail the concept had entered “serious negotiations”.

“This would take the Kangaroos to the world. There will be global recognition. I’m keen to make this happen. We want to play the All Blacks, hopefully, we can get the concept off the ground.”

Manly playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans – a 15-Test Kangaroo – said he was interested in taking part in such a contest.

“Anything like that, where there’s an opportunity to grow the game of rugby league and in particular at a time like now, I think it’s a great idea,” he said.

“I’ve always maintained I’ve love to play rep football for as long as I’m up for it. If my form provided to be there, I’d love to play something like that. It’d be unreal, great to look back on and experience something like that.”

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy said the match is one he would enjoy watching but wasn’t sure how the rules would work.

“Someone said they’d have rugby union rules for one half and rugby league for another half,” he said. “I wouldn’t like to be a rugby league player at the bottom of one of them mauls. That’d be an ugly place to be if you’re not used to it.”
World Rugby have confirmed a temporary international window for later in the year with plans to run The Rugby Championship in one country, most likely New Zealand.

New Zealand have instigated a process to try to host the Springboks, Wallabies and Pumas for the southern hemisphere test extravaganza as the sport continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Those efforts fit in with proposals by World Rugby’s executive committee who have given a green light to a temporary international window between October 24 and December 5.
An All Blacks vs Kangaroos match with hybrid rules would be “complete nonsense”, former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons says.

Australian Rugby League and New Zealand Rugby have been in talks over the concept, though attempts to create such a match have fallen flat several times before.

The game had been touted for December 5 with a potential turnover of $15 million, but FitzSimons said it would be a ridiculous match if the rules in any way resembled rugby union, with its more specialised skills.

Complete nonsense. It might happen but it will be a complete nonsense,” FitzSimons said on Sports Sunday.

“People say they’re very similar games; in fact, this will be like a snooker team taking on a yachting team.

“It depends which rules you use. So when they come up with the hybrid rules, if those hybrid rules have lineouts, rolling mauls, scrums and rucking the ball, well the All Blacks win by 50 points.

“If they don’t have those rules, it turns into something like rugby league and maybe it’s a fairer contest. But from the moment that you don’t have those four key things … I mean, an All Blacks scrum against a rugby league scrum, it’s going to be a rusty shopping trolley, you’ll just go all the way down the field.

“A lineout, they’ll win every single lineout. A rolling maul, the Kangaroos wouldn’t know how to stop them.