{"id":24779,"date":"2025-07-27T00:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24779\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T00:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:36:14","slug":"johns-kiwis-and-english-in-origin-doesnt-sit-right-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24779\/","title":{"rendered":"Johns: Kiwis and English in Origin “doesn’t sit right” – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLC chairman Peter V’landys’ shock revelation that he will be reviewing a change in Origin eligibility rules sent the NRL<\/a> world into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

The change in rules would allow stars who have represented England<\/a> and New Zealand<\/a> internationally to still have the opportunity to play State of Origin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It would grant stars like Addin Fonua-Blake<\/a> and Victor Radley<\/a> the chance to represent their state, a rule that many seem to be onboard with, except Andrew Johns.<\/p>\n

\"Eels<\/p>\n

Speaking on \u00a0Wide World of Sports’\u00a0Immortal Behaviour,\u00a0Johns expressed his trepidation with allowing international players to don their state’s logo.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why, it just doesn’t sit with me that you can play for England<\/a> and play for New South Wales or Queensland,” Johns conceded.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why. I don’t know whether it goes back to tradition, hundreds of years that England<\/a> players can’t play Origin. Kiwis can’t play.”<\/p>\n

While Johns was adamant that English and Kiwi players should not participate in Australia<\/a>‘s largest sporting event, he admitted that his concerns stop with them.<\/p>\n

\"It'sSYDNEY, NSW – JUNE 15: Andrew Johns of the Blues<\/a> is congratulated by his brother, commentator, Matthew Johns after winning match two of the ARL State of Origin<\/a> series between the Queensland Maroons<\/a> and the New South Wales Blues<\/a> at Telstra Stadium June 15, 2005 in Sydney, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why it doesn’t sit well with me, but it’s different for me with Pasifika nations,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just feel England<\/a> and the Kiwis is different to Samoa<\/a> and Tonga<\/a> and Fiji<\/a>… That’s something we have to look at.”<\/p>\n

Johns’ concerns are ones shared with many rugby league fans, who believe it could sour the tradition of Origin if the league were to allow international players to join.<\/p>\n

While no rule switch has been officially set, V’landys’ willingness to explore the idea is sure to spark some level of change in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLC chairman Peter V’landys’ shock revelation that he will be reviewing a change in Origin eligibility rules sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-24779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24779","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=24779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}