Moorabbin to the MCG: The magical journey of Wallaby Harry Potter
On Saturday, English-born Harry Potter will step out onto the MCG to represent Australia’s Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions in front of a predicted 90,000-strong crowd.
But a few months ago, Potter secretly attended another Melbourne rugby ground, albeit a much smaller one with equally enthusiastic fans.
Ewan (left) and Emilia are among the junior Moorabbin Rugby Club players looking forward to watching Harry Potter play on Saturday.Credit: Jason South
In April, the 27-year-old made a surprise visit to Moorabbin Rugby Club – where he played as a junior after moving to Australia from England when he was 10.
Club president Ian Nathan said Potter dropped by one night to help three of Moorabbin’s junior teams with their training.
“It’s amazing to have guys of that calibre come down,” Nathan said. “It gives the kids a chance to see that even though Melbourne is supposedly not a rugby place, we’ve got guys playing for Scotland, Samoa, Japan and Australia, representing all parts of the world.”
Nathan said Potter spent time with the juniors and offered them advice, saying, “if you work hard, you can make it anywhere”.
Wallaby Harry Potter (second from left) with members of the Moorabbin Rugby Club team in April.Credit: Moorabin Rugby Club
“I think that’s great for the kids to hear,” Nathan said. “You don’t have to grow up to be six foot four to be able to play ... that’s one of the wonderful things about rugby, because it does cater for all shapes and sizes.”
Nathan remembered Potter showing “signs of being a really good player” in his early days at Moorabbin. The inevitable wizard puns and magic jokes ramped up once he moved back home. (The first J. K. Rowling book was published in 1997, the year the future Wallaby was born, before burgeoning into a literary juggernaut and movie franchise.)
“It wasn’t such a big deal when he was with us, but when the [Harry Potter] series started and he moved back to the UK, those headlines just wrote themselves,” Nathan laughed. “It’s probably something that drives him a bit nuts.”
Moorabbin Rugby Club President Ian Nathan.Credit: Jason South
Nathan said most of Moorabbin Rugby Club had tickets to the MCG match and everyone was looking forward to seeing Potter and former Melbourne Rebels centre Sione Tuipulotu play, until Tuipulotu was omitted from the Lions squad for Saturday night’s clash.
Tuipulotu grew up in Frankston and played several games with Moorabbin but spent most of his junior career with the Southern Districts Rugby Club. He was the Rebels’ first homegrown Super Rugby player in 2015 and eventually moved to Japan, and then Scotland.
He qualified for the Scottish national side through his maternal grandmother, Jacquelin “Anne” Thomson, making his Test debut for the Scots in 2021 and rising to become captain in 2024.
Southern Districts Rugby Club president Karl Dix refereed Tuipulotu and his brothers during their time at the club, and while he was disappointed to see Tuipulotu miss out on Saturday’s game, he said everyone was still incredibly proud of him.
Tuipulotu has a tight hamstring, which was factored into Lions coach Andy Farrell’s decision to opt for Ireland centre Bundee Aki at No.12.
“I’ve been at the club 20 years, so I’ve known him [Tuipulotu] quite a long time and he was always a talent,” Dix said. “Every time he got the ball, you could just see him breaking the game line.”
Dix hoped Saturday’s match would spark Melbourne’s interest in rugby union.