It’s been nearly 23 years since Prince Harry celebrated England’s Rugby World Cup triumph behind enemy lines in Australia and now the rugby-mad royal is back on a reconnaissance mission.<\/p>\n
With preparations well underway for the World Cup to return next year, Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh will host Harry and wife Meghan Markle in a private suite at Friday’s Super Rugby Pacific clash between the NSW Waratahs and Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n
The couple has only one night in Sydney as part of their first visit to Australia since 2018.<\/p>\n
But the Harbour City holds good memories for rugby fan Harry, who joined England’s celebrations for their 2003 World Cup triumph.<\/p>\n
In the final at Stadium Australia, Waugh was vice-captain as the Wallabies had their hearts broken by a Johnny Wilkinson drop goal in the last minute of extra time.<\/p>\n
Israel Dagg isn’t ready to farewell Hurricanes breakout star Fehi Fineanganofo | Scotty & Izzy <\/p>\n
But there were no hard feelings as Waugh reached out to the Sussexes with tickets to the ‘Tahs.<\/p>\n
The round-10 Super Rugby Pacific clash will be played almost exactly 18 months before Australia’s follow-up World Cup begins in October 2027.<\/p>\n
“Harry loves his rugby and we are looking forward to hosting him and Meghan at Friday night’s game,” said Waugh.<\/p>\n
“Australian audiences will remember Harry celebrating as England held aloft the Webb Ellis trophy on these shores in 2003.<\/p>\n
“And with the Rugby World Cup returning to Australia next year, we are delighted to welcome him back for a match that will feature Test players from Australia and across the Pacific.”<\/p>\n
Staff completed a security walk-through at Allianz Stadium last Friday to ensure the couple’s safety on the night.<\/p>\n
The Sussexes are expected welcome Invictus Games colleagues to the stadium on Friday, when the Waratahs will look to shake off a 42-14 loss to the Chiefs in their last start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been nearly 23 years since Prince Harry celebrated England’s Rugby World Cup triumph behind enemy lines in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-605395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605395","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=605395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}