Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i's upcoming defection from rugby league to rugby union has been the hottest topic in both codes.
While most union supporters were tentatively excited by the prospect of what the 19-year-old schoolboy union star could bring to the Waratahs and Wallabies, the reaction from the NRL was described as "hysterical".
Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan told the ABC Sport Daily podcast the NRL were acting like "cry babies" and that the code as a whole should "respect his choice" to switch codes.
On Monday, Canterbury-Bankstown general manager and NRL commentator Phil Gould suggested Sua'ali'i should get out of the game straight away rather than wait until the end of 2024 to cross rugby's Rubicon — or, in more literal terms, the car park between the two organisations' offices off Driver Avenue in Sydney's Moore Park Sports Precinct.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson described those comments as "ridiculous".
"It showed a bit of fear, for me, about another code," Robinson said.
"Coaches go between rugby union and rugby league, but to come out against Joey as a 19-year-old showed a fair bit of fear about the building across the road from us."
NRL boss Peter V'landys told the Sydney Morning Herald that Sua'ali'i would get "terribly bored" playing despite being "paid twice the money for doing half the work".
Brandon Smith, Sua'ali'i's teammate at the Roosters, told reporters on Sunday that "a $1.6 million winger is not going to help you beat the All Blacks".
McLennan, though, has doubled down in an interview with Channel 9, saying V'landys' suggestion that the 15-man code was overpaying for an outside back was "a cheap shot" and that Sua'ali'i was worth it.
Time will tell as to whether Sua'ali'i will be worth the investment — and what would actually constitute a wholly successful switch in the first place — but a glance at the history books would suggest that outside backs do better when switching codes than Smith might expect.
Jason Robinson: From Wigan to Rugby World Cup winner
Code converts are not new.
Even as far back as the earliest days of rugby league, when Dally Messenger signed with the new professional rugby league in 1907, there has been a rich history of players moving — although mostly it was one-way traffic.
In fact, across England, New Zealand and Australia, 90 of the 107 players who have won caps for the same country in the two different codes went from union to league.
The 17 who went from the 13-man code to the 15-man code moved post-1995 after union went professional.
England's Jason Robinson was not the first man to move from league to union, but he was arguably the first to truly excel in the modern era.
Robinson was a rugby league legend, making over 300 appearances for Wigan, 7 for England and 12 for Great Britain between 1991 and 2000 — although that included a brief stint with Bath post the advent of professionalism in the 15-man code in 1996.
That flirtation turned into a permanent relationship in 2000 when he signed for Sale and used his seven phenomenal years in union to become a legend in a second sport.
He became the first player to win a Super League (league) and Premiership (union) title in 2006 and starred as England won the 2003 World Cup.
His 51 England caps saw him score 28 tries — including in the Rugby World Cup final of 2003.
The other try-scorer in that final, incidentally, was Lote Tuqiri — another league convert to union.
He also played five times for the British and Irish Lions, scoring two tries.
Israel Folau: A problematic code-hopping great
The end of Israel Folau's career in union is steeped in acrimony and controversy — but that doesn't dilute his extraordinary influence over three codes of football in Australia.
Folau's impact on football in Australia is impossible to understate — anyone who saw him play live will never forget it.
A physically dominant 100kgs and 194cm, he could run over his opponents, run around them, or most spectacularly, leap over them.
He made his NRL debut as a 17-year-old and proceeded to break the record for the number of tries scored in a rookie year and became the youngest Kangaroos debutant in 96 years as an 18-year-old.
He would go on to play eight times for Australia and scored 73 tries in 91 NRL appearances for the Storm and Brisbane Broncos, plus five times for the Queensland State of Origin team, for five more tries.
After a brief and ill-fated sojourn with the AFL's expansion team the Giants, he returned to rugby, this time union, and made an instant impact.
In a Waratah and Wallaby jersey, he was virtually unstoppable, scoring a record 60 Super Rugby tries — a record that still stands.
He even scored twice on his Wallabies debut against the British and Irish Lions at Lang Park — going on to score 37 five-pointers in his 73 Tests.
As good as he was though, he "only" scored seven tries against the All Blacks and beat them just twice in his Wallabies career, with one draw, from 17 attempts.
Maybe Smith had a point after all…
Brad Thorn: Bucking the trend
The vast majority of successful league-union converts have been outside backs — particularly in the modern era: All seven of Australia's dual Wallaby-Kangaroos internationals since union turned professional have been backs.
England's seven league-to-union converts post-1995 have been more of a mixed bag, with more mixed results.
While Robinson and his fellow former Wigan winger Chris Ashton were both successes, fellow backs Barrie-Jon Mather (who also played for Perth's short-lived Western Reds) and Kyle Eastmond had less success in union — despite both earning caps.
Then there were the forward converts, Andy Farrell — who endured an injury-blighted playing career footnote in union at the end of his exemplary league career, has since come good as grand slam winning coach of Ireland — Joel Tomkins and Sam Burgess — powerhouse forwards in league who could not quite convert that bulldozing style into effective union centres or flankers.
Perhaps the game is too specialised now, a century of change leading each code down separate evolutionary paths.
Enter Brad Thorn.
You could make a case for current Queensland Reds coach Thorn being the best cross-code player of all — and certainly one of the most decorated.
A prop or second row in league, Thorn made 130 appearances for the Broncos, the Maroons in State of Origin, the Australian Super League team and the Kangaroos.
Thorn switched then to union with the Crusaders, winning 12 All Blacks caps and the Tri-Nations in a four-year spell during which he played as a lock forward.
Three more years in the NRL followed, including three more State of Origin games and the 2006 Premiership before he returned to union in 2007, where he won the 2011 World Cup, four Bledisloe's and the 2008 Super Rugby title with the Crusaders.
A stint in Europe with Leinster saw Thorn win the 2012 Heineken Cup title as well.
Sua'ali'i won't be the last
Code-hopping isn't new, and it will not end.
Sonny Bill Williams made a habit out of playing wherever he could, no matter whether he had 12 teammates alongside him or 14.
It worked out for him too: 12 Kiwi caps, 58 for the All Blacks, NRL premierships with the Bulldogs and Roosters in 2004 and 2013, a Super Rugby title in 2012 with the Chiefs and two Rugby World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015.
"The reality is, our guys travel the world," McLennan told the ABC Sport Daily podcast.
"The current Wallaby crop will be playing at the third-biggest sporting event [the 2023 Rugby World Cup] in France … our players get life experience that you wouldn't get anywhere.
"We're happy to pay our players well … That's a good thing if you want to come and play rugby because you get to travel the world and you will be looked after by us at the elite level."
Should Sua'ali'i end up playing for the Wallabies, he will become the third player to do so having first won a Test cap for a Pacific Island nation in league after Cooper Vuna (Tonga) and Marika Koroibete (Fiji).
Speaking to Channel 9, McLennan teased that there was another "unnamed person out of league who have put their hand up to come across".
Whether it was coincidence that Nathan Cleary was spoken to by Channel 9 on Tuesday or not, we will never know, but he did not rule out a possible move for when he comes off contract with the Panthers in 2027 — the same year the Rugby World Cup will be hosted in Australia.
"I have a great admiration and respect for union players, particularly growing up in New Zealand; it's so big over there," he said.
"At the moment, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at. Somewhere down the track? Maybe."
