New Australian coach Kevvie Walters has revealed his plans to try and keep a trio of stars in the Kangaroos jersey for the 2025 Ashes Tour amid potential defections to Samoa.
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Blues prop Payne Haas and Queensland stars Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow are weighing up potential switches from the Kangaroos to play for Samoa.
The trio have reportedly privately already made their minds up to trade the green and gold for the blue of Samoa, but no official announcement has been made.
Walters doesn’t believe he should have to convince players to wear the Kangaroos jersey, but still holds out hope the trio could be in his first Kangaroos team.
“I have had some conversations and picked up the phone,” Walters said on NRL 360.
“There will be some meetings in the next couple of weeks with those guys.
“I won’t be trying to convince them to play for the Kangaroos. I will sit down with these guys and outline my plan on where we are going to take the jersey and then get an understanding of their feelings towards that and how they feel about playing for the Kangaroos.
“If they want to continue and play for our jersey that is great I love that and if they don’t I totally respect that.”
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Walters admits the international game has changed dramatically in recent times and called for mutual respect and understanding with players who have dual allegiances.
“I get it with the Pacific nations and the way the game is growing, I totally understand and respect their decision in that regard as well,” Walters said.
“We will get players in that jersey that want to play for the Kangaroos and die for our country because it is going to be a very tough series.
“We need everyone on board to be pushing hard in that Kangaroos jersey.”
Australia are set to open their Ashes campaign at Wembley Stadium, the same venue Walters represented his country at the World Cup final over 30 years ago.
“It’s a very famous ground not just in rugby league, but in world sport,” Walters said.
“I was fortunate enough to play there in 1992 at Wembley in the World Cup final.
“We are expecting a huge crowd to come to London to support not only the English, but the Australians as well.
“They are expecting 60 or 70 thousand people to come to Wembley which is a very unique experience and they are a very vocal crowd as well.
“Hopefully we will keep them fairly quiet for most of the match though because the plan is to get over there and put in some really strong performances.
“We play at Wembley and then up to Liverpool for game two and to Headingley Leeds for game three.”
