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Former All Black Sevens star turns hand to NRL

09 Mar 2023

New Zealand's William Warbrick (R) celebrates scoring a try in the men's pool A rugby sevens match between New Zealand and Argentina during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Stadium in Tokyo on July 26, 2021. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP) (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)

Rising Melbourne star Will Warbrick has no plans to try emulate the triple-code feat of Israel Folau despite a history in both rugby union and AFL.

The 25-year-old winger made his NRL debut in round one, coming after winning an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo with the New Zealand sevens team.

Folau started in the NRL in Melbourne before turning his hand to AFL and then finishing his controversial career in rugby, playing 73 Tests.

WATCH as South Africa’s Director of Rugby Johan Erasmus reveals the motivation behind bringing legendary referee Nigel Owens on board the Springbok coaching panel

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WATCH as South Africa’s Director of Rugby Johan Erasmus reveals the motivation behind bringing legendary referee Nigel Owens on board the Springbok coaching panel

While Folau arrived in AFL cold, Kiwi Warbrick spent a year playing Australian rules and even played for New Zealand’s under-18 side.

He also played in the inaugural season of the AFL New Zealand competition, winning a rising star award, and was interested in pursuing a pathway through St Kilda.

But he downplayed his AFL exploits, saying he’d found a home with the Storm.

“I’m pretty happy with sticking to rugby league at the moment,” Warbrick told AAP.

“I think this game suits me the best and I’m just looking forward to just trying to have a good season this year.”

Given his AFL history it seems serendipitous that he ended up playing in the sport’s capital anyway.

“I was actually approached from AFL New Zealand from a rugby league tournament back in New Zealand so it’s sort of been like a full circle moment,” he said.

“And then obviously being here in Melbourne where it’s the heart of AFL it’s been a pretty funny journey, but pretty cool.”

Warbrick joined Melbourne following the Olympics but his progress was frustratingly stalled due to calf and quad injuries.

He entered this pre-season intent on winning a NRL berth, having adjusted from seven minute games to playing 80 in league.

“It was a frustrating season last year as they weren’t big injuries but just enough to disrupt my season,” he said.

“I had a pretty big pre-season and had a goal of trying to put my hand up come round one and I was able to take my opportunity and debut.”

Injury-hit Melbourne shocked Parramatta in gold en point in round one and will be missing playmaker Cameron Munster for their clash with Canterbury at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

Winger Xavier Coates has been named despite suffering a sprained SC joint, although is still rated doubtful.

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Bob Salad II 22 minutes ago

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PB 23 minutes ago

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You can knock his success, but you can’t fault his integrity, and that he has always put Welsh rugby first.

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Tom 1 hour ago

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RedWarriors 1 hour ago

How Dupont-less France tossed a grenade into Ireland's Grand Slam celebrations

“.an innate lack of threat”. Creating a 3 on 1 is a threat!!!!

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RedWarriors 1 hour ago

How Dupont-less France tossed a grenade into Ireland's Grand Slam celebrations

Not sure I agree with these cliches. The Scots and Irish used to be renowned for passionate performances. The English (anglo-saxons) more so for forward structure while the Welsh known for attacking flair. Argentina are a historically consistant, high standard team.

I don’t believe France lost emotional control against England. I believe that England played well enough to turn the match into a slog in which they got the last blow in.

The Portugal-Spain match recently was a really interesting battle. Portugal had to rely on flair to overcome a strong performance by Spain, but they couldn’t, the structure, method and preparation of their Latin neighbours was way too much.

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Ed the Duck 1 hour ago

How Dupont-less France tossed a grenade into Ireland's Grand Slam celebrations

So the most prominent Irish captain ever says that many supporters need "to have a good hard look” at themselves and that counts for nothing does it?

He follows up with "For sure, not like maybe," replied O’Driscoll when asked about Irish arrogance. But that doesn’t count for anything either?

"People will say that’s because the fans are hard to deal with. I hear that from my [ITV] work colleagues over in the UK, there's not much love for Leinster and there's less and less love for Ireland around being good winners”

All meaningless as well?

He calls the fans out for being hypocrites when he says “"We've said the same about everybody else: ‘Scotland getting ahead of themselves, Wales being hard work, oh, England being arrogant’. I think we might need to internalise an awful lot of that and have a good hard look at ourselves.”

So we should just ignore his opinions in favour of yours should we?

He underlines his views further, saying "I saw the article in the Telegraph the other day [asking] are Ireland a hard team to enjoy? Are they getting ahead of themselves?

"I would say, the supporters, yes…”

ofc that also means nothing!

You really are well and truly stuck in denial, enjoy!

Ps how does it feel to have a record number of downvotes on your opinions on this discussion?

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