Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan continues bitter war of words with NRL and Peter V’landys

The war of words between rugby league and rugby union has escalated, with Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan calling rugby league scrums ‘weak’ and mocking the intelligence of those who play the sport.

The code war between the two football heavyweights has made headlines in recent months, with both sides ridiculing each other.

McLennan has raided NRL talent, luring Sydney Roosters teen sensation Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii back to rugby in a multi-million dollar deal from 2025.

Rugby Australia and Wallabies coach Eddie Jones also circle fellow former schoolboy stars Cameron Murray and Payne Haas, and even double premiership winning playmaker Nathan Cleary.

The rugby boss has stated that ‘many league players’ would like to swap the code and on Sunday he delivered another bitter swipe at rugby league, mocking players for a lack of intelligence and the code’s poor attempt at scrum.

The ‘code war’ between the two football heavyweights has made headlines in recent months, with both sides ridiculing each other (NRL boss Peter V’landys pictured)

“League scrums are so weak,” McLennan told the Herald.

“League talks about toughness, but I think an arm wrestling in the pub would[be]harder than their scrums. Let’s have a competition between the two best teams and see who is stronger.

“We’ll do the best of three scrums with the league version and the best of three with a rugby version and see who comes out on top.

“Rugby Australia will put $100,000 in the pot and the winner will donate the prize money to charity and we will arrange for Nine to broadcast it live on television.

“If it’s a tie, we’ll have a spelling contest to determine the winner.”

McLennan has not apologized for his organization’s optimistic approach to the code war.

“Some rugby die-hards hate it,” he said earlier this month.

“We just see that over the years we’ve lost a lot of very good union players to the league and they’ve stripped our talent pool.

McLennan has not apologized for his organization’s optimistic approach to the code war

McLennan has raided NRL talent, luring Sydney Roosters teen sensation Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii back to rugby in a multi-million dollar deal from 2025

“They scream when we take one or two back. We’ve been very strategic. It’s a free market. It’s good for the players.

“As Eddie said, there’s only five percent of players who have the skills to do both.”

Last week, V’landys upped revealed that the NRL was considering introducing exceptions to the salary cap.

The change would allow NRL clubs to target Wallabies stars, with V’landys clearly frustrated by Rugby Australia’s aggressive recruitment strategy.