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Charlotte Caslick epitomises the term code agnostic. The 31-year-old has clocked up 328 appearances for Australia in rugby sevens, winning Olympic gold, Commonwealth gold and a Sevens World Cup along the way; she’s played rugby union for her state and country; and rugby league in the world’s biggest women’s club competition in any code, the NRLW. So, why is she – and so many other players from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific – good enough to switch between codes – and why do they want to?
“It probably comes down to the way we grow up,” says Caslick. “We play so many different sports all year round, changing between them. Boys will play school rugby on Saturday then club rugby league on Sunday for as long as they can. More girls are starting to do that as well. Throw in touch or oztag, and we have so many opportunities. It challenges athletes to find where they are best suited. Until you get exposed to different formats, you don’t know which one is for you.”
The answer for an increasing number of elite women is all three. Australia’s sevens captain, Madison Ashby, played league and union while growing up. Her teammate, Maya Stewart, played league and touch as a kid, then union for Australia, and she has hit the sevens tour this season.
Women’s rugby is moving towards cricket’s model, where countries and T20 franchises fish in the same pool for elite talent and hidden gems. Clubs in the recently expanded NRLW are targeting union internationals, Women’s Super League players and sevens talent from the Pacific. Logic suggests that their money will talk and they will soon target the Women’s Premiership.
Ellie Kildunne has excelled in all three codes. She played league in her youth, competed at the Olympics for Great Britain in sevens, and won the World Cup with England’s union team last year. And now she says she wants to test herself in the NRLW. Australian and Kiwi stars are beating a path to it. Since Dominique du Toit signed for Cronulla Sharks, having won the Sevens World Cup with Australia, the trickle has become a wave.
Australia union players Layne Morgan and Arabella McKenzie are heading to the Eels and Dragons, respectively; Canterbury Bulldogs have signed Daynah Nankivell from Japanese union champions Yokohama TKM and Tamika Jones from the union club Western Force; Sydney Roosters have signed Tatum Bird from union side NSW Waratahs and the former sevens player Keighley Simpson. After 12 years of enormous success in union, the New Zealand legend Michaela Blyde switched codes last year to play in the NRLW.
The world’s best female players are taking advantage of their talent – and the rugby economy – to play in blocks like T20 cricketers: a few months of league in the NRLW, then a sevens series, then a switch to union for the World Cup. “Stacey Waaka did NRLW into a sevens season into a World Cup and she still performs at a really high level at each different code,” says Caslick. “It’s been brilliant to see players take advantage of their skills in different ways. The Kiwis really seem to be getting that right at the moment. I’d love to see Australia lean into that as well.”
The NRLW is giving players 12-month contracts. Will that prevent players from switching codes and monetising their talents? “It’s hard,” says Caslick. “For the girls who just want to play rugby league, the upside is it gives them more stability in their day-to-day life. I can see why the players’ association was pushing for that stability. But, for players who aren’t quite at that level yet, if they have the luxury to still play both, a contract might prevent that development.”
In men’s rugby, code switching is more common in the southern hemisphere. Angus Crichton has moved from league to union, lured by the prospect of playing at a home World Cup next year. The 30-year-old was picked to represent Australia at union as a teenager before committing to league. He started all three matches for Australia when they beat England in the autumn, scoring two tries at Wembley in the opening Test, and will be hoping for similar results at the tournament next year. Zac Lomax has also switched codes but in very different circumstances. He was blackballed by the NRL after committing to the Rugby360 rebel competition and has been forced to seek refuge at union club Western Force.
Rather than feeling an obligation to stick with a certain code, young players are mixing things up. After playing union for Australia in his teens, Darcy Feltham has taken his prodigious talents to league with South Sydney and Penrith Panthers. “I don’t swing one way at the moment and want to keep playing both,” he says. “Whatever opportunity comes up, I’ll just take my chances.” Mark Nawaqanitawase played all three codes within a matter of weeks in 2024. But he is only halfway to matching the ultimate codebreaker Wendell Sailor, who represented Australia at union, league, 10s and nines, as well as sevens league and sevens union.
Current players do not remember when union was amateur and are unencumbered by the sporting apartheid that tore at the soul of rugby for a century. They will play what they were taught at school, what their mates play, what they watch and what they are best at.
But conquering more than one code requires sporting prowess few possess. “I found the transition to rugby league easier than I did to 15-a-side rugby,” says Caslick. “Outside backs predominantly do a lot of yardage carries in league. You just take the line on and don’t have to think too much about what everyone else in the team is doing. In sevens, opportunities are always coming your way. Whereas in 15s, everything in the back line has to go perfectly for stuff to pay off. I found that a bit more challenging. And sometimes you spend a lot of the time without the ball. You really have to grind it out.”
Sevens also poses a format challenge. League and union professionals spend a week building up to an 80-minute game. At the Vancouver leg of the HSBC SVNS tour last weekend, Australia played just 14 minutes on Saturday, then four games on Sunday culminating in a final defeat by New Zealand. In New York this Saturday, their three group games span over six hours. “That’s probably the most challenging part about sevens: having to cool down and then warm back up, as well as managing the emotions,” says Caslick. “Sevens can be quite stressful at times and the emotions that you go through within just that 14-minute period can really vary. It’s quite difficult to stay balanced all weekend.”
Becoming world class in both league and union is still relatively rare, even if Joseph Suaalii, Brad Thorn, Jason Robinson, Sonny Bill Williams, Semi Radradra, Israel Folau and Lote Tuqiri pulled it off. Antoine Dupont’s sevens glory in Paris last year is unlikely to lead to a stampede to play in the LA Olympics in 2028 (although Mexico are trying to secure the services of Catalans Dragons full-back Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet if they qualify).
Instead, young sevens players are seeking jobs – and more money – in league, often for a coach who understands what it takes to cross codes. Sam Burgess, who represented England in league and union, signed the former England sevens international Alfie Johnson for Warrington Wolves. Declan Murphy took to Super League with extraordinary ease after playing sevens and union. Two years after playing union for Harpenden in the sixth tier, he signed for world club champions Hull KR.
Jason Demetriou, the London Broncos coach, expects to find similar gems as he trawls the south-east of England for athletic talent. “I want to get to some rugby games and try to identify a few players,” he says. “We can offer short-term contracts to players to try their hand at rugby league. In a city of nine million people, it would be crazy not to.”
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