To play at the top level in any sport is a great honour and something to cherish. I’ve had my share of the big moments and some average ones as well. That’s life.
The battle to get to the top of your game is influenced by many things. Hard work and luck – both good and bad – are your constant companions.
In 2009 I was packing my bags for the end-of-season spring tour. I’d been at the Wallaby training camp and going OK. I’d been measured up for my suit and all my other gear. What a buzz!
Then the day before the squad was named in the media, I busted my ankle in a training accident and that was that. I wept that night after I was told I may never play again.
After the operation I headed home for R&R and spent a lot of time thinking about my future. The family were right behind me and really put some wind in my sails.
Finally, after seven months of rehab, I decided to give it another crack – pardon the pun. It took so long to heal because I’d dislocated it as well as a clean break. You may as well go all out!
Still, I put the big ones in and in 2010 I was selected for the Commonwealth Games Sevens team to play in Delhi. The whole trip was fantastic and with blokes like Chucky Stannard, Liam Gill and Bernard Foley, how could you not be entertained?
I remember the party at the end of the Games up in the athletes’ village – after a weightlifter threw a washing machine out the seventh floor window we decided on a sing-along to calm the big fella.
I’m not great on the guitar but I can play a few songs. There’s an old one called the Do Run Run or something like that and I played the verses with about 30 Indians singing the chorus. Me: ‘I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still.’ The Indians: ‘De do run run run, de do run run.’ It was huge. They must’ve mistaken me for Brett Lee. So I finished the song with a ‘Get it In-dia’ and the crowd went wild. Everyone seemed pretty stoked even though most had no idea what it was all about. It was a good year and something I’ll cherish forever.
It was another couple of years later, in 2012, when I was finally given my Wallabies shot, three years since my injury. Some other players missed out through injury or form and I got the call. Life’s a big evener, you have to keep at it.
It’s 2016 as I write this and at 28, I’m getting towards the twilight of my career and back where it all began – Sevens.
Here’s a brief rundown on what brought me to this point:
2005: Randwick Colts
2006: Randwick 1st Grade
2007: Australian Sevens
2007: Perth Spirit (7 caps)
2008–2015: Western Force (87 caps)
2010: Commonwealth Games – Silver medal
2012–2014: Wallabies (15 Caps)
2014–2015: Coca-Cola Japan (24 caps)
2014: Barbarians vs Wallabies
2014: World XV vs Japan
2016: Aussie Sevens
I’ve gone about a few things arse-up. Super 15 players rarely jump into Sevens at the end of their careers; it’s just so bloody hard. Sonny Bill has done it successfully and managed to avoid serious injury. He should be wearing a cape because that bugger can do almost anything. He’s a great athlete.
When I was a young rooster playing for Randwick I found Sevens training really tough. Now, it’s on a whole new level – even harder than working for the old man! Especially with an injury.
After four back-to-back seasons combined with that new level of training, the body didn’t want to play and forced me to pull out of the Olympic Sevens squad. It was a heartbreaking realisation.
The injuries were really knocking me around and stopping me from being where I wanted to be – where the team needed me to be.
But so be it. At least I had a go. When one door closes, another one opens. I’ve had a good run.
Just a bit of ab-seiling.