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The debrief is yet to begin over the failure of England’s Ashes campaign both on and off the field, and just how big a missed opportunity the last few weeks could prove to be for the game in this country. But amid all the gloom, there has been an unlikely beacon of hope for the sport’s promoters.
As the 52,000-plus crowd filtered away from Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening, there was a huge ruckus outside the players’ entrance. Not for any of the home players, who had once again flattered to deceive. Not even for Nathan Cleary, regarded as the world’s biggest star for a number of years and someone with genuine worldwide cut-through.
No. The mob of supporters who had hung around were only interested in seeing one man: Kangaroos full-back Reece Walsh. Walsh’s notoriety and reputation in Australia was solidified long before he made his Kangaroos debut last month, but the 23-year-old has now become the hottest attraction in rugby league, and is now the star the sport can hang its hat on globally.
Without his on-field heroics, this series would probably be going to a decider in Leeds on Saturday given his performance in the first Test at Wembley. But off the pitch Walsh has been just as influential, with organisers in England probably thankful the Brisbane Broncos superstar has thrown himself into everything asked of him to leave some sort of legacy for this series.
Last Saturday, he was one of the last to leave as he signed every autograph and posed for every photograph. The star of the Broncos’ NRL Grand Final victory earlier this year, Walsh has been compared to LeBron James by the Australian Rugby League Commission chief, Peter V’landys, for the impact he can have in bringing new eyeballs to rugby league.
“He’s so big over here, that people who just watch Premier League football are saying: ‘Who’s Reece Walsh?’” Kevin Brown, the former England half-back, admitted this week. His former teammate, Jon Wilkin, added: “A guy I train in the gym with went to London with no interest in rugby league to Wembley to watch Reece Walsh.
“Because he caught the NRL Grand Final, first game of rugby he’s watched. And he saw something special. He saw Reece Walsh, and he’s like: ‘Well, I just love watching the best in the world do it.’” Australia’s assistant, Gorden Tallis, even admitted that the South Africa rugby union team, staying in the same hotel as the Kangaroos in London, only wanted to talk about Walsh.
And while England have bizarrely chosen to hide away and bunker down in Wigan this week and will not even step foot in Leeds until they get off the bus for the third Test at lunchtime on Saturday, Australia have thrown themselves into the local community with training sessions at Headingley and community events.
It is the tourists, not the hosts, who have become the flavour of the month in the eyes of the British public with Walsh at the heart of it. Those at Leeds Rhinos who have been present for those events insist that while the likes of Cleary and Cameron Munster have been popular attractions, it has been Walsh who young rugby league players want to really get a glimpse of.
The good news for English rugby league fans is they won’t have to wait long to see Walsh in the flesh again. The Super League champions, Hull KR, will do battle with Walsh’s Broncos in the World Club Challenge in Hull in February: you do not need too many guesses to work who out was front and centre of the promotional material on this side of the world.
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Hull KR will sell that night as the biggest in their club’s history, but they will also acknowledge the must-see opportunity to witness rugby league’s new global superstar. “You don’t need to be a Hull KR fan to get excited about that game, probably for reasons like Reece Walsh,” the Rovers chief executive, Paul Lakin, admits.
“The chance to see him play in Hull … I would expect there are a lot of rugby league fans who will want to get a ticket for the game. Personally, I’m so excited to see him play against Hull KR. As a rugby league fan, I want to see the biggest players playing in the biggest games in England. He will help make it a special night.”
Walsh’s pull has even been so strong that there is an urban myth doing the rounds in rugby league circles that there has been an unprecedented demand for replica versions of the bright pink shorts he has made famous during training sessions. That would ordinarily feel a stretch too far-fetched but, with how Walsh’s star has risen of late, perhaps not.
