The Bacardi Breezer boys are back together again, Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson are rugby league’s latest redemption story after they were called up to the Australian team on Tuesday.

Coach Mal Meninga named the former Canberra bad boys in his first Kangaroos side for next month’s trans-Tasman Test in Newcastle, with Dugan at right centre and Ferguson next to him on the right wing.

The pair’s drinking escapades downing Bacardi Breezers on a Canberra rooftop in 2013 led to Dugan’s exit from the Raiders.

When they were last selected together for representative honours for NSW later that year, a drinking session led to Ferguson’s arrest over indecent assault allegations and subsequent banishment from the NRL.

Meninga was happy to welcome them into his first Kangaroos side as coach.

“They are mates and they will go well together,” said Meninga, who knows the pair from his association with the Raiders.

“They have done it tough, but they come out the other side and they are the better for the experience.

“They have been playing good football and that is why they have been selected.

“They are still on that journey and this is the next step.”