{"id":237490,"date":"2025-10-24T12:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/237490\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:04:14","slug":"nathan-cleary-interview-nrl-star-on-a-future-switch-to-union-what-he-learned-from-marcus-smith-the-ashes-and-why-rugby-league-stars-are-set-to-snub-breakaway-r360s-riches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/237490\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Cleary interview: NRL star on a future switch to union, what he learned from Marcus Smith, the Ashes and why rugby league stars are set to snub breakaway R360’s riches"},"content":{"rendered":"

He is one of the greatest rugby players in the world, but Nathan Cleary<\/a>\u00a0has been able to walk through his Kensington hotel unnoticed this week. The place has been taken over by sumo wrestlers who are large enough to make even the biggest of rugby players look small.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s outside-half has won four consecutive NRL<\/a> titles with the Penrith Panthers, amassing almost half-a-million Instagram followers. Cleary is an admirer of Harlequins and England union star Marcus Smith and the two caught up in the southern hemisphere this summer. Yet here in London, ahead of rugby league’s first Ashes series since 2003, he can easily fade into obscurity.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve been able to hop on some Lime bikes and cruise down to Big Ben,\u2019 says Cleary. \u2018We rode down to Buckingham Palace<\/a>, past the Royal Albert Hall, where the sumos were doing their competition. We\u2019re in the same hotel as them so they\u2019ve been eating all the breakfast! Every time we\u2019d go down to the lobby they were just sitting around, so that\u2019s been pretty cool.\u2019<\/p>\n

More than 60,000 tickets have been sold for the series opener at Wembley, a stadium which would be more associated with Cleary\u2019s footballing girlfriend, Mary Fowler<\/a>, who plays for Manchester City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

League chiefs are on a mission to grow the code\u2019s popularity in the capital, granting it the big stage of game one. In 2003 it was Wigan, Hull and Huddersfield that cornered the Ashes<\/a> Tests, averaging just under 24,000 fans per game. This time, it’s 90,000-seat Wembley, Everton<\/a>‘s new 52,000-capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium and Leeds’ Headingley Carnegie, which has come in for criticism as a choice given it holds under 20,000, but it will be rocking for the potential series decider.<\/p>\n

The State of Origin series holds more weight than international fixtures Down Under but this weekend\u2019s showdown promises to be a box-office occasion.<\/p>\n

\"Nathan <\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary at Wembley Stadium, where his Australia side will face England on Saturday in an Ashes curtain-raiser<\/p>\n

\"Cleary <\/p>\n

Cleary with his girlfriend Mary Fowler, who plays football for Manchester City<\/p>\n

\"Cleary <\/p>\n

Cleary poses with the Provan-Summons trophy after beating Melbourne Storm in the 2024 Grand Final\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The main difference between union and league is the international stage. It\u2019s obviously so big in union but we\u2019re definitely getting there,\u2019 Cleary says. \u2018More countries are becoming competitive and that makes for better games.<\/p>\n

\u2018To come over here and play these games, it\u2019s a historic moment for a lot of us. Most of us were pretty young when the last series was on. I see a lot of old clips so it\u2019s special to be a part of.<\/p>\n

\u2018Not many people get to say they\u2019ve played at Wembley so we\u2019re very lucky. Taylor Swift was here recently. We came down to watch the NFL on Sunday and the stadium is sick.\u2019<\/p>\n

Cleary will feature in a star-studded Australia team alongside the likes of Reece Walsh, Cameron Munster and former union wing Mark Nawaqanitawase. On paper, Australia should be favourites, but England feature headline talent of their own, including star NRL centre Herbie Farnworth, who has been courted for a move to union.<\/p>\n

\u2018Herbie\u2019s a world-class centre,\u2019 says Cleary. \u2018He\u2019s one of the top three centres in the game at the moment. Every time you come up against him in the NRL, you know what you\u2019re going to get. He\u2019s consistent, he\u2019s fast, he\u2019s strong. He\u2019s got all the attributes.\u2019<\/p>\n

Like their union counterparts, Cleary and Co have all been put on R360\u2019s hitlist, targeted as code-switch candidates who could sprinkle their stardust on rugby union\u2019s proposed breakaway competition.<\/p>\n

However, Cleary revealed to Daily Mail Sport that he has no intention to join the movement, left with little doubt after players were threatened with suspension if they enter negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a lot of speculation about it,’ he says. ‘They came out with a 10-year ban if you get caught talking to R360 so I\u2019ll be avoiding that! I don\u2019t want to be banned for 10 years… Nah.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\u2018To <\/p>\n

\u2018To come over here and play these games, it\u2019s a historic moment for a lot of us,’ says Cleary of the first Ashes series since 2003<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has enjoyed enormous success with Penrith Panthers, winning four consecutive titles with the New South Wales side<\/p>\n

\"His <\/p>\n

His 84 per cent goal-kicking success rate makes him as consistent as any half-back in either rugby code<\/p>\n

With close connections between the codes, the eyes of the union world will without doubt be on Wembley this weekend.<\/p>\n

At the start of the season, Bristol Bears coach Pat Lam named Cleary as the athlete he would most like to recruit from any other sport. England winger Dom Young previously held talks with Leicester Tigers and Australia\u2019s Nawaqanitawase is due to switch back to union to play at the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not something I\u2019d shut the door on,\u2019 says Cleary. \u2018I\u2019m pretty open to trying different things but at the moment I\u2019m thoroughly enjoying league. I feel I\u2019m in a really good space, constantly getting better and really enjoying that.<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019ve seen a few people switch codes successfully over the time. The transition seems more seamless for the outside backs. Mark has come over from union and he\u2019s been unbelievable.<\/p>\n

‘When he first came over, I was wondering how he\u2019d go with the fitness and having to take a lot more carries. I\u2019ve just found myself being a fan of him this year. Some of the stuff he can pull off is unbelievable. You see that with a lot of the union boys.\u2019<\/p>\n

Cleary\u2019s 84 per cent goal-kicking success rate is as consistent as any half-back in either code. Smith spent an afternoon watching his training session in Sydney during the Lions tour, with Cleary keen to tap into the minds of some of the sharpest fly-halves.<\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t get to go to any of the Lions games unfortunately because our schedules didn\u2019t line up, but I watched pretty much all of it and it looked incredible,\u2019 he says. \u2018Marcus came out to our training at Penrith and I got to speak to him. That was pretty cool.<\/p>\n

\u2018I grew up in New Zealand so I always watched Dan Carter growing up. He\u2019s a legend in my eyes. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to meet him and talk with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘One thing that stands out for me in union is the way they kick the ball. There\u2019s definitely a correlation between what I do as a half-back and the fly-half in union, so I watch a lot of those guys.<\/p>\n

\u2018Even though there is a lot of correlation in skills, it\u2019s the mindset that people are trying to tap into. A lot of the time that\u2019s the edge between good and great players. Everyone\u2019s trying to find that edge now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"As <\/p>\n

As much as Cleary is interested in the world of rugby union, his focus right now is entirely on the Ashes<\/p>\n

\"All <\/p>\n

All Black back-rower Ardie Savea is one of the union players Cleary believes could make a successful switch to league<\/p>\n

So, which union players would Cleary like to see playing in the NRL?<\/p>\n

\u2018I reckon Ardie Savea would be pretty good,\u2019 he says of the All Black back-rower. \u2018He\u2019s a beast. The way he runs the ball, I could see him playing back row. Owen Farrell obviously had a connection to league but never got to play it. I think he would have gone well.<\/p>\n

\u2018Beauden Barrett, Quade Cooper\u2026 a lot of the guys who play fly-half could go pretty well in league if they got the time to learn the game. Obviously, you get a bit more time in league, being 10 metres away from the defence, so a lot of the union fly-halves would like that.<\/p>\n

‘Sometimes I watch union and think it would be sort of difficult to get involved in the game, especially if there\u2019s slow rucks, but all the fly-halves have elite kicking games so that would be a pretty handy attribute in league.\u2019<\/p>\n

As much as Cleary is interested in the union world, his focus is entirely on these upcoming Tests. It has been a long wait since their last series, more than two decades, and the grand comeback at Wembley is the perfect way to renew the rivalry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He is one of the greatest rugby players in the world, but Nathan Cleary\u00a0has been able to walk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[13285,64,63,142234,100,1208,12909,28533,1203,761,762,158,6659,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-237490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-ashes","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-rugby","12":"tag-dailymail","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-england-rugby","15":"tag-mary-fowler","16":"tag-nathan-cleary","17":"tag-national-rugby-league","18":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","19":"tag-nrl","20":"tag-rugbyleague","21":"tag-sport","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}