Australian rugby player Harry Potter will represent for his country for the first time Sunday against Scotland, fittingly in Edinburgh – the city where the famous books about his fantasy namesake first came to life.
Before you start with the puns, he’s heard them all before.
The 26-year-old was added to the Wallabies last month for their end-of-year European tour and said he had landed the nickname “Wizard” by a teammate — in reference to the eponymous character in J.K. Rowling’s much-loved fantasy novels.
Rowling has said she wrote most of the tomes in the Scottish capital.
Before running out for the Australian team, Potter has made it known he has issued a test for the rugby media.
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“It’s a good challenge for journalists to see if they can think of a unique or original Harry Potter pun,” Potter said, AP reports.
“It’s been 26 years of it, so it’s pretty funny, I reckon. And yeah, tip my hat if you think of something original.”
Potter was born in London in December 1997 — six months after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first of Rowling’s series of world-famous novels, was released.
He moved to Melbourne at the age of 10 and played his rugby at school before graduating to club level and now earning his own page in rugby history, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Potter will add his wing wizardry to an Australia team seeking a sweep of the rugby nations in Britain and Ireland for the first time since that end-of-year “Grand Slam” was achieved by the Wallabies in 1984.
