Rugby interview: Karmichael Hunt - Three's a crowd for Hunt

Former league star back is to ditch union after Heineken Cup for Aussie Rules, his third code

WHEN THE weary players crawl off the pitch in Stade de France next Saturday afternoon at the end of the Heineken Cup final between Toulouse and Biarritz, the vast majority of "les Biarrots" will head to the beach for a well-earned rest, but not all of them. For their colourful playmaker Karmichael Hunt, that final whistle will signal the end of one season and the start of entirely new career.

The one-time rugby league superstar, who has played just one season of union with Biarritz, will catch a cab to the airport and scurry back home to Australia to take up his third professional sport – Aussie Rules.

After six years at the top of rugby league and one season of union, Hunt will fulfil a three-year contract as the star attraction of the brand new Gold Coast Australian Rules franchise as Australia's third sport pitches camp in the middle of what has traditionally been rugby territory. They hope to take interest and fans from both the Queensland Reds and the Broncos. It's just another twist in the tale of a player who boasts no ordinary background.

Hunt was actually born in Auckland, New Zealand, to a Samoan father and a mother from the Cook Islands. The family moved to Australia when Junior was just eleven and the versatile youngster grew up in Brisbane playing Aussie rules, basketball and union, but rugby league was his first love. Hunt was identified at an early age as something special. The Broncos offered him a schoolboy scholarship and in 2004 he duly became the youngest ever player to turn out for the club at 17 years, 118 days old. He was also the club's rookie of the year and their top try-scorer in his debut season.

One coach who spotted him early, even before he made his ARL bow, recommended him to a club who not-unnaturally asked what position Hunt should play? "Wing, fullback, centre, flyhalf, lock," came the reply, "it doesn't matter because he is going to play for Australia for the next 12 years".

For some reason it didn't quite happen – well not yet, he is still only 23-years-old. The child prodigy did well but never quite fulfilled all that early promise. After turning down the country of his birth, Hunt has turned out for the Australian Kangaroos but only on 11 occasions to date, which, given the early hype, is probably somewhere below par. He did not make the Roos' original 2008 World Cup squad although he did make a belated appearance after an injury to Brett Stewart, a rival fullback.

Following his brief stint in France, which could include a European Cup winners medal if things go Biarritz's way next weekend, Hunt will become the first league star name to make the switch to Australian Rules, where he will find himself up against the former Edinburgh winger Mike Pyke, who has been a surprise hit with the Sydney Swans.

As another union convert to Rules, Pyke has been asked about Hunt's abilities and the one-time winger wondered aloud whether his modest 6ft 1in frame would match find its niche in amongst a game where every player looks like they have been stretched on the rack. "He's an incredible athlete," said Pyke, "but I don't know where they're going to play him?"

It's a little like David Beckham suddenly deciding to try his hand at basketball or Kevin Pietersen joining the New York Yankees. Not only is the move fraught with danger but when a rugby league superstar jumps ship to Aussie Rules, the resulting shockwaves reverberate across Australia where there is an ongoing Darwinian battle for survival between the three codes. The Melbourne Rebels Super 14 team will kick off next season in Aussie Rules' Victoria heartland while Hunt's new Gold Coast franchise is firmly in league and union territory.

One league coach laughed off the new Gold Coast team as "a circus" and wondered out loud if their next signing would be the bearded lady. He probably wasn't laughing quite so hard when another 13-man star, Glen Inglis, threatened to join Hunt, who is reportedly being paid more than A$1 million per year (615,000). Still he isn't happy. Hunt recently revealed in an interview that if he didn't have a contract in AFL (Aussie Rules) to fulfil he would rather remain in Biarritz.

"Having had such a successful time over here now, if I hadn't had the AFL deal on the table and there was an opportunity for me to come play rugby union in France I'd definitely stay on," said Hunt, and who can blame him?

"I've been lucky. Biarritz is a nice place, it's on the coast, and the people are friendly. The only difficult thing has been the language barrier but that has slowly eased."

"I've been playing fly-half for a few games and if I haven't been in the No.10 jersey it has been in the centres. Rugby is a different game (to league], whereas in rugby league you know how many touches you are sort of expected to get but in rugby it can vary from a handful of touches to a lot. It depends on how the game turns out.

"Thankfully of late we have been playing some running football and I've been really enjoying it. If I can come away with a Heineken Cup win, that would be great."

It doesn't seem likely. Toulouse remain firm favourites despite losing to Perpignan on Friday night after fielding a weakened side in the Top 14 semi-final. At full-strength, Toulouse are still the form side in Europe; last Friday was their 17 consecutive Top 14 play-off appearance, the sort of consistency that makes Munster look like drunken dilettantes.

Whether the weekend off will have helped Biarritz's preparation for the Heineken Cup final, only time will tell, but chances are that their young Kiwi/Aussie, league/Rules, centre/flyhalf is spreading his talents a little too thinly.