NRL and State of Origin star gets green light to represent England as switch approved

Gold Coast Titans star AJ Brimson has been granted authorisation to switch his international allegiance from Australia to England, and could now be named in Shaun Wane’s squad for this autumn’s Ashes Series.

Brisbane-born Brimson, who has spent his entire career to date at club level with the Titans having made his NRL debut back in 2018, represented Australia at the Rugby League World Cup 9s in 2019.

The 26-year-old – who has also represented Queensland four times in State of Origin – qualifies to play for England via his mother, who was born here.

As both Australia and England are classed as ‘Tier 1’ nations in international rugby league, the playmaker had to submit an application to switch his allegiance.

He did exactly that earlier this year, and now, an International Rugby League tribunal has resulted in that application being accepted.

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NRL and State of Origin star gets green light to represent England as switch approved

Able to slot in at full-back or in the halves, it remains to be seen whether England head coach Shaun Wane will name Brimson in his squad – with the likes of Jack Welsby, George Williams, Mikey Lewis and Harry Smith all likely to earn a spot.

But the Queenslander will at least now be able to be in contention, with the IRL’s press release confirming their acceptance of his application confirming details of the tribunal which took place.

IRL Chair Troy Grant, Deputy Chair Dean Andrew and Independent Director Emma Young were the decision-makers, and felt that player who had played in the 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s – like Brimson – were being unfairly restricted.

The viewpoint was that those players had elected for their country based on a different set of circumstances to players who elect for a country through a 13-a-side format because 13-a-side games are played continuously, but 9-a-side competitions aren’t.

As part of the tribunal process, Australia were consulted about Brimson’s switch and were supportive.

IRL Chair Grant said: “This was a unique case in that a player who qualifies for two Tier 1 nations had elected to represent one of those nations in 9s and was therefore unable to represent the other nation in 13s.

“Yet the player has had no further opportunity to represent his elected nation in 9s, as he had anticipated, and has also not played a senior international match.

“The aim of the international eligibility rules is to ensure that the best players are able to represent a nation for whom he or she qualifies but in this case the player had been left sidelined.

“The tribunal therefore felt that player Brimson should be allowed to switch his international eligibility from Australia to England and approved his application to do so.”

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