While South Sydney’s 52-10 win over Riverina wasn’t unexpected, a bumper crowd of around 5000 – one of the Albury Sportsground’s biggest crowds of the past 20 years – has instilled confidence the Border can host the foreign code in AFL heartland.

“Huge success really,” delighted Albury Thunder president Rick O’Connell said.

“You’re always wondering whether you’ll get the support, but the Albury and Riverina people, the people that travelled from Sydney and Victoria have turned it into a fantastic result.”

The Thunder co-hosted the Rabbitohs’ visit with Ovens and Murray premiers Albury Tigers in a bold gamble, given Souths were naturally never going to field their full strength team for the first major trial.

“We’re delighted, it’s been a fantastic day, it’s been a really great collaboration between the two clubs and the Albury Tigers, our people have been fantastic,” Tigers’ president Stuart Hodgson said.

Souths wowed the Border during their 48-hour visit, with seven-time NRL premiership coach Wayne Bennett asked if he would come back.

“Of course we would, we may come back next year, (we’ll) see what you people think here,” he said.

“There’s other towns chasing us now to do the same, we’ll go somewhere next year, it may be back here or somewhere else in NSW Country.”

Quite remarkably, the deal to host the Rabbitohs was clinched in a frenetic 72-hour period the week before Christmas.

“Absolutely, we’d love to host it again, with a little bit more time, we only found out late, but we managed to pull it together,” Hodgson said.