After playing in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership for Fortitude Valley, in 1983 Backo was given his first opportunity in Sydney's NSWRFL premiership with the Canberra Raiders in their second season. He made his début in March and went on to play a handful of games that season. From 1984, Backo was a regular member of the starting line-up at Canberra and in 1987 appeared in his, and the club's, first grand final, which was lost to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. While in his final season at Canberra, Backo was first selected to play State of Origin football for the Queensland Maroons in the 1988 series. He played in all three games at prop forward, scoring one try in game II and two tries in game III. Queensland won the series in a three-game whitewash. In games II and III Backo won consecutive man-of-the-match awards, one of only a handful of players to do so. During the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour Backo was selected to make his test match debut at prop forward in the first of the Ashes series against Great Britain in Sydney, scoring a try. He went on to become the first Australian forward to score tries in all three Tests of an Ashes series, and at the time he was only the second Australian player to do so after legendary winger Ken Irvine. At the end of the 1988 NSWRL season Backo was the Dally M front rower of the year. A late season injury playing for Canberra saw him miss selection in Australia's World Cup Final winning team.
RFL and Brisbane
Moving to England, Backo played in the 1988–89 Rugby Football League season for Leeds. on Sunday 16 October 1988 he played as an interchange, replacing prop Hugh Waddell, in Leeds' 33-12 victory over Castleford in the 1988 Yorkshire Cup Final at Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds. Backo's final two seasons of top-level football, 1989 and 1990, were spent in Queensland, with the Brisbane Broncos. He was selected to go on the 1989 Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand. Backo also played in a further four games for the Maroons – games II and III of the 1989 State of Origin series, and games II and III of the 1990 series – despite his knee problems, which limited his participation with his club to only five appearances during 1990 and eventually forced his retirement at the end of the season. Although selected for the 1990 Australia team to play France in the NSW country town of Parkes, he was forced to withdraw because of his ongoing knee injury. In total, Backo played in six Tests and scored three tries. In 1991, Backo made a short-lived return to football to play for Logan Scorpions in the Brisbane competition.
