In one of the world’s most competitive sporting nations the Kangaroos are the pre-eminent team.
Cricket may be the national sport, partly thanks to the extraordinary exploits of the likes of Don Bradman and Steve Waugh, as well as a lack of summer competition, while Aussie Rules generates even more spectators but, by definition, has little or no opportunity to compete internationally.
Their rugby cousins, the Wallabies, have meanwhile garnered more global attention in winning two World Cups back in the nineties, but in Australia it is rugby league that is by far the dominant code.
As a youngster growing up in the province in which it is most popular of all, Lachlan Coote inevitably, then, longed to take the field with the Kangaroos, but as he does so for the first time as the Rugby League Four Nations gets underway at Hull’s Lightstream Stadium tonight, it is not quite as he envisaged it.
Coote has known for many years that his maternal grandmother’s birthplace of Glasgow meant he was dual-qualified but, since representing Scotland at the 2013 World Cup would, at least in the short-term, have meant giving up on his greatest dreams at the age of just 23 he understandably required more time to consider his position, then.
After all, if there was a rival to that ambition of representing the Kangaroos it was the hope of one day representing New South Wales in the State of Origin Series which, if anything, is even more intense than Test rugby as they take on Queensland in an annual best-of-three matches.
Three years on he has done so and one of the best paid players in Australia’s National Rugby League, a member of the North Queensland Cowboys side that defeated the Brisbane Broncos in last year’s Grand Final, beat Leeds Rhinos to win this year’s World Club Challenge and played every match in the Cowboys’ 2016 campaign, has persuaded head coach Steve McCormack that he has the necessary commitment to represent Scotland.
They start, inevitably, against Australia tonight when he will be part of, to use rugby union terminology, a highly impressive back three alongside Lewis Tierney, the son of Jason Robinson, one of the greats of both English rugby codes who was part of Wigan’s Super League Grand Final winning side this season and Matty Russell, the Irvine-born, Wigan-bred winger who was in the losing team in that Grand Final having been a regular in the Warrington Wolves team that topped Super League in the regular season.
Coote is honest enough to admit that changes to the sport’s eligibility rules have been a major factor in his considerations.
Rugby league is a sport that has been territorially extremely limited so as it seeks to break out of Britain’s Pennines and Australia’s East Coast it has had to show intelligent flexibility in permitting players who are qualified through bloodlines for second tier nations – all those other than Australia, England and New Zealand – to represent them when overlooked by their homeland. They have, too, got rid of the rule which restricted State of Origin selection to players currently committed to playing for Australia.
However Coote was also persuaded by the experience of one of his North Queensland Cowboys, another New South Walean now plying his trade in Queensland curiously, who did decide that the chance to play in a World Cup was one he could not refuse in 2013 and revelled in every moment of what was a joyous campaign with Scotland.
“I came close to playing at the World Cup in 2013 then seeing the Scottish team making the Four Nations was a bonus and they approached me and I was happy to come over and learn a bit more about my heritage,” Coote explained.
“The main thing that was holding me back from playing for Scotland was that I wasn’t sure of the ruling and whether I’d still be eligible to play State of Origin next year, so I’m glad that they’ve clarified that now.
“Kane Linnett is a team-mate of mine at North Queensland Cowboys and he told me about his last trip on the World Cup tour and said it was awesome because we’ve got a great bunch of blokes here, so I was pretty excited to be a part of it.
“I’m glad it’s worked out the way it has and it’s great to be here with the boys.”
His presence, along with fellow NRL players Linnett and his fellow centre Euan Aitken, as well as Huddersfield Giants half-backs Ryan Brierley and Danny Brough, who has been the team’s creative mastermind for more than a decade, offer more firepower than Scotland has ever boasted before.
In front of them Luke Douglas, brother of Wallaby Kane, is part of a forward pack that contains Billy McConnachie and Sheldon Powe-Hobbs another two who bring antipodean ruggedness, albeit from Australian rugby league’s second tier competition, their introductions also having ensured that competition for places is greater than ever before.
However they are also aware of what confronts them, not least because the best represented club in the Kangaroos team is Coote and Linnett’s North Queensland Cowboys.
“Coming up against Australia first it will be good to come up against our teammates and I’m sure there’ll be a bit of niggle and everything in there, a bit of trash talk, but we’re looking forward to it,” smiled Coote.
“They’re obviously a strong outfit, so it’s going to be a tough game out there, but it’s good for the Scottish boys to see the level of footie it’s going to take to be at that level.”
He is not naïve about their prospects of catching the tournament favourites cold.
“You look at their status and all the boys that are playing for them it’s hard to say that we’ll dust ‘em up, but I’m sure that when we go out there in the first 20 we can give them a run for their money and see how we go from there. Hopefully they’ll make heaps of errors and they’re a bit off their game and we might be in with a chance.”
What he has seen offers him encouragement that the Scots can be competitive.
“Even our first training session was pretty sharp and crisp,” he noted.
“One hundred per cent you can see the passion within the boys here, so it’s good to see that we’re going to go out there, have a real good crack and give it a real good go.”
Anything short of a thrashing will be a surprise but the next three weeks represent Scotland’s greatest ever chance to mix with the best in rugby league and Coote’s relish at the prospect reflects that of the entire squad.
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