Unfortunately, he seems to have missed that distinction in a match earlier this month for Biarritz.  It looks like Hunt has been so busy signing contracts and hopping on flights, he may have missed a leaf from the union law book.  Either that, or perhaps match pressure got to him and he went to instincts.  In either case, Hunt himself explains it best.  But you don’t have to take his word for it.  Instead, have a look at this clip from Rugby Dump:

We were wrong. Before his AFL career begins, Hunt plans to wear a shirt with sleeves for just a bit longer by playing rugby union for six months with Biarritz in France. This means that if all goes according to plan, Hunt will have played three football codes at a top professional level in the space of a year. So far, he seems to be enjoying the journey.

Some have already been questioning the intent behind Hunt’s frequent code-hopping. We won’t speculate on what’s behind the sport-swapping, but if it’s all about the publicity, Hunt may want to get Nike on the telephone. After all, this is starting to look very familiar to some of us in the United States:

The similarities grow even eerier when we recall that Hunt is a big fan of basketball and the NFL.

Here’s hoping things go well for the multi-talented athlete. Fortunately for Karmichael Hunt, there shouldn’t be any sign of “Rabbits” Warren (see video in link) or Fuifui Moimoi (see second video in link) in Biarritz or the AFL.

Reactions have varied, with some seeing promise in the move and others sure that disaster is in the offing for Hunt (and maybe for the whole AFL).

We won’t bother to comment, except to say that it will be interesting to see if he can go from this:

to this:

That said, an exhibition match seems logistically feasible. Why? Just last week, Australia and Ireland contested a two-match International Rules Football series. The series featured a hybrid of Australian rules football and Gaelic football, and was narrowly won by Ireland. Although interest was so-so, the matches were televised internationally.

If two such disparate codes can have a hybrid series, why not the rugby codes? It has certainly been done before, but such cross-code matches seem rare. The obvious answer is that neither code would want to risk losing audience to the other by way of such a match, but a few matches here and there might also open the door to new sources of fans and revenue.

As a testament to the entertainment a cross-code contest can provide, here are a few clips from the recent International Rules series: