No plans for hybrid Aust UK match

The UK's Rugby Football League has dismissed as false reports that it is planning a cross-code fixture against the Wallabies.

Britain's Rugby Football League is not planning to participate in a hybrid-code fixture with the Australian rugby union team, Press Association Sport understands.

Reports on Saturday and Sunday said the governing body had agreed to a December 6, 2014 date with its Australian 15-a-side counterparts, which would pit the Wallabies against a Great Britain rugby league side at Wembley.

But the RFL is keen to distance itself from the stories.

Although the RFL had received correspondence about such a fixture, it said it had not met the organisers and was not looking to progress it any further.

Former Australia and Leicester union boss Bob Dwyer first mooted the hybrid idea in 2012 to a mixed reception.

It had been reported that this fixture, were it to go ahead, would see a half of 15-a-side and a half of 13-a-side.

There have been two cross-code experiments in England in the past.

Wigan faced Bath in 1996, winning a two-game series 101-50 after a fixture of each discipline, while Sale beat St Helens 41-39 in a game consisting of both codes in 2003.

As things stand, the Great Britain rugby league side is in storage, having been disbanded as an annual entity after a 2007 series against New Zealand.

It is expected to be reformed for a Lions tour in 2015 although no plans have been confirmed.


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Source: AAP


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