On Saturday, English-born Harry Potter will step out onto the MCG to represent Australia’s Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions in front of a predicted 90,000-strong crowd.

But a few months ago, Potter secretly attended another Melbourne rugby ground, albeit a much smaller one with equally enthusiastic fans.

In April, the 27-year-old made a surprise visit to Moorabbin Rugby Club – where he played as a junior after moving to Australia from England when he was 10. 

Club president Ian Nathan said Potter dropped by one night to help three of Moorabbin’s junior teams with their training.

“It’s amazing to have guys of that calibre come down,” Nathan said. “It gives the kids a chance to see that even though Melbourne is supposedly not a rugby place, we’ve got guys playing for Scotland, Samoa, Japan and Australia, representing all parts of the world.”

Nathan said Potter spent time with the juniors and offered them advice, saying, “if you work hard, you can make it anywhere”.

“I think that’s great for the kids to hear,” Nathan said. “You don’t have to grow up to be six foot four to be able to play … that’s one of the wonderful things about rugby, because it does cater for all shapes and sizes.”

Nathan remembered Potter showing “signs of being a really good player” in his early days at Moorabbin. The inevitable wizard puns and magic jokes ramped up once he moved back home. (The first J. K. Rowling book was published in 1997, the year the future Wallaby was born, before burgeoning into a literary juggernaut and movie franchise.)