{"id":447138,"date":"2026-01-30T10:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447138\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T10:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:21:09","slug":"souths-star-opens-up-on-all-stars-match-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447138\/","title":{"rendered":"Souths star opens up on All Stars match &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The future of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> All Stars match has again come under the spotlight, with growing concerns over player availability prompting debate around the fixture&#8217;s place on the rugby league calendar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The annual pre-season clash between the Indigenous All Stars and M\u0101ori All Stars has been a staple since 2019, replacing the traditional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> All Stars game and becoming a major cultural event in the game&#8217;s opening month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">However, with a congested schedule, overseas commitments and injury management ruling out a number of high-profile players, questions have been raised over whether the match can continue in its current form.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite the concerns, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/south-sydney-rabbitohs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a> forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jai-arrow\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jai Arrow<\/a> has come out strongly in defence of the contest, highlighting its cultural and educational significance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI love the concept,\u201d Arrow told SEN 1170 Drive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI love what it&#8217;s all about\u2026 I love how two cultures get to come together and represent their names and family, and learn about it as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt&#8217;s definitely, as a fan, the one on the calendar that I look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Arrow also stressed the importance of the match in showcasing Indigenous and M\u0101ori culture to a wider audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI love when boys are representing their culture and I suppose raising or teaching people like myself who probably aren&#8217;t as cultured as they are to learn about what they&#8217;re about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt doesn&#8217;t go unknown that those two sides get stuck into each other, so I don&#8217;t see why they would take that away from the fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI love the concept and I&#8217;d love to see more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Players heading to Las Vegas for Round 1, those involved in the World Club Challenge and others managing suspensions or pre-season injuries are all expected to be unavailable, leaving the clash without several of the game&#8217;s biggest stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the NRL All Stars match has again come under the spotlight, with growing concerns over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-447138","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\/447138","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=447138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}