{"id":238323,"date":"2025-10-24T20:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238323\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T20:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:05:12","slug":"nrl-2025-the-ashes-wembley-kangaroos-meet-bon-jovi-captains-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238323\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2025, The Ashes, Wembley, Kangaroos meet Bon Jovi, captain’s run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite appearances – it wasn\u2019t a coup for the Kangaroos to meet and pose for photos with rock star Jon Bon Jovi at Wembley yesterday.<\/p>\n

It was a coup for Jon Bon Jovi.<\/p>\n

\u201cA manager came up to me and said would it be alright if he went out there and met the team,\u201d revealed Rhodri Jones, the managing director of Rugby League Commercial after one of the most celebrated frontmen in rock history crashed Australian\u2019s captain\u2019s run on Ashes eve.<\/p>\n

After throat surgery that threatened his career, the 63-year-old New Jersey icon is putting the band back together for a world tour and is visiting the venues in search of publicity.<\/p>\n

He brandished a hurley at Dublin\u2019s Croke Park the previous day but RL and JBJ did not initially know each other were at Wembley on Friday.<\/p>\n

England had the stadium booked between 10am and 11am, Bon Jovi\u2019s promoters between 11am and 2pm, and Australia between 2pm and 5.30pm. Had England coach Shaun Wane not cancelled his team\u2019s visit, it\u2019s the host country\u2019s players and sponsors who would have benefited from the global publicity.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n \"Legendary
\n
\n
\n Legendary singer Jon Bon Jovi joins the Kangaroos at Wembley.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville
\n
\n <\/p>\n

As it was, media in attendance to interview Wane were ordered inside before Bon Jovi walked down the tunnel to conduct interviews following a media conference inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after Bon Jovi\u2019s minders shunned the rugby league media earlier, the man himself decided to court the cameras when he saw them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we just missed him… he was here about an hour ago and he popped back up again\u201d said Australian forward Reuben Cotter, as surprised as anyone when JBJ emerged and walked down the touchline to join the players and staff for a photo opportunity at the start of their session.<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n \"Steely
\n
\n
\n Steely focus for the green and gold ahead of the first Ashes Test.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville
\n
\n <\/p>\n

Asked if any of the players were Bon Jovi fans, Cotter responded \u201call of them\u201d and reported that one team-mate \u201csnuck in a hug\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin Walters!\u201d the coach said, sticking out his hand to the megastar.<\/p>\n

Others sang ‘Livin\u2019 On A Prayer’ and when a ball was thrown to the frontman, he caught it like a winger.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoos, get ’em tomorrow!\u201d he told the team social media crew.<\/p>\n

And as he returned to the tunnel, Bon Jovi promised he would be \u201cdown in Australian soon”.<\/p>\n

After once admitting he stole the line \u201csons of beaches\u201d from Australian Crawl, he had this to say when asked if he had ever seen rugby league. \u201cI have seen it on television. These guys are total sons of bitches. It\u2019s football without helmets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite appearances – it wasn\u2019t a coup for the Kangaroos to meet and pose for photos with rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-238323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238323","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=238323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}