Wally is the name of the official mascot of the Australian rugby union team, the Wallabies. Wallabies-mother-and-son

Wally is a

wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

. The

stuffed toy A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be ...

version of the mascot is carried with the Wallabies on overseas tours to Europe. It then becomes the duty of the youngest member of the touring party to protect the mascot from pranks by older players to hide and sabotage it. It is considered an embarrassment to the protector if Wally is not safely guarded. The protector is forced to hold Wally at all times. It becomes a source of entertainment for senior players when the team is out socialising.

Events

When Berrick Barnes was forced to protect Wally during the 2007 World Cup in France he had to stitch it up several times and perform a search of every member's hotel room to retrieve it, despite the help of

Lote Tuqiri Lote Daulako Tuqiri (born 23 September 1979) is a former professional dual-code rugby footballer who primarily played as a winger across both codes. He represented Australia in both rugby league and rugby union, and Fiji in rugby league. Tuqi ...

. During the 2008 tour it became a long-running joke among the players that the mascot could be used by 18-year-old James O'Connor to break the ice with young ladies. In May 2007 a Welsh rugby fan was ejected from a stadium in Sydney during a match for attempting to dance with the life-size version of Wally.Fan, 72, ejected for mascot dance
BBC News

References

External links

{{Australia national rugby union team Sports mascots Animal mascots Australian mascots Australia national rugby union team Rugby football culture Sports culture in Australia

Events

See also

References

External links