{"id":920363,"date":"2026-10-08T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920363\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:30:13","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-news-2026-reece-walsh-interview-kangaroos-fullback-battle-james-tedesco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920363\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup news 2026: Reece Walsh interview, Kangaroos fullback battle, James Tedesco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reece Walsh<\/a> has conceded he likely won\u2019t be Australia\u2019s first-choice No.1 at the Rugby League World Cup<\/a>, but has vowed to use it as a golden opportunity to learn from one of the greatest ever fullbacks, James Tedesco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old was the Kangaroos<\/a> fullback in last year\u2019s Ashes series and helped the side to a clean sweep, but is now expected to deputise for Tedesco. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh speaks to media.\u00a0George Chan<\/p>\n

Fresh off a Clive Churchill Medal win in the Roosters\u2019 grand final victory<\/a>, Tedesco will now don the green and gold jersey for the first time since 2023.<\/p>\n

Panthers star Dylan Edwards<\/a>, who was the back-up for Walsh at the end of last year, has been sidelined due to injury, while Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga will play for the Kiwis after switching his allegiance earlier this year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Speaking to media on Thursday before the Kangaroos\u2019 tournament opener against New Zealand next week, Walsh acknowledged he faced an uphill battle to see game time, but found a silver lining of being behind Tedesco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to compete with Clive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously grateful to be in camp. I was watching Teddy when I was a kid. To see what he\u2019s done over the last few weeks, it\u2019s going to be hard for myself to push for a position \u2013 but I\u2019m confident in my ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to be a sponge and learn off him. He\u2019s one of the greats to do it in our game, and I\u2019m lucky enough to be able to rub shoulders with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could be half the player Teddy is. For myself to be able to see the way Teddy prepares for a game, as a 24-year-old, I\u2019m pretty stoked with that. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are some small things I can take away and put into my game, if I can be half the player that he\u2019s been, I\u2019ll be happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh spoke about watching Tedesco while he was still in school, but now gets to train alongside arguably the greatest fullback of all-time over the next month.<\/p>\n

Tedesco has one of the sport\u2019s most incredible resumes, becoming a three-time premiership winner with the Roosters last weekend, adding more silverware to a career that also includes two Dally Ms and the 2019 Wally Lewis Medal.<\/p>\n

There were concerns over whether Walsh would be able to take part in the World Cup or be named in Kevin Walters\u2019 23-man squad at all, after the Broncos star missed the back-end of the season with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Walsh said he did everything in his power to be fit in time and lauded Brisbane\u2019s medical team for helping him be part of the Aussie set-up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got such good staff there who manage injuries really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh had a tough 2026 campaign.\u00a0Ian Hitchcock\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the physios there, Shred, has been thrashing me for the last six weeks. So it\u2019s good to get back into the team environment and be around more players instead of just getting thrashed by myself …<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to do everything I can to push for this team, whether that\u2019s starting or whether it\u2019s not. I\u2019m just going to try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh admitted his form was \u201cdisappointing\u201d at times this season, but felt that he \u201ctried hard\u201d even if the results didn\u2019t go Brisbane\u2019s way after a 2025 premiership.<\/p>\n

Australia will meet the Kiwis next Thursday night at Allianz Stadium in a blockbuster RLWC opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh has conceded he likely won\u2019t be Australia\u2019s first-choice No.1 at the Rugby League World Cup, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-920363","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\/920363","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=920363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}