Diamond in the rough
Rugby player Nick Cummins has taken on a different challenge to become The Bachelor. The Honey Badger tells DANIELLE MCGRANE why he decided to go on the dating show.
There’s never been a Bachelor quite like this one. Former Wallabies player Nick Cummins, AKA The Honey Badger, is the quintessential Aussie larrikin, renowned not just for his performance on the pitch but for expressions such as: “Busier than a one-armed bricklayer in Baghdad” and making sure to refer to most people as “roosters”.
On top of all that, he’d never even watched the reality dating show before so when he was deciding whether or not to go on, he sought the advice of his family who knew a little bit more about the dating show.
“They were a little but like, ‘Are you sure’? I didn’t really know because I hadn’t seen it before,” Cummins said.
But he has never let a small detail like that stop him from embracing life’s opportunities.
“I think I walked past when my sisters were watching it, but I’d rather live it than watch it.”
That’s pretty much the Honey Badger’s ethos: to dive in to life. When he isn’t living in luxury mansions and charming female suitors, he’s likely to be road – tripping across Australia for
National Geographic, fishing off Fraser Island or swimming in a gorge in WA.
“I’m doing everything with my life possible,” he said.
“I just flew in this morning from Darwin. I was patting crocodiles up in the Northern Territory and then I’m off to the Kimberley to do some filming. I’m mixing all my passions with my purpose: travel, with bringing back the Australian language if possible, and furthering my career in every way I can.”
Cummins has been single for over a year now following a six-year relationship, but he admits he’s never really found it hard to meet someone. He does, however, have his reasons for wanting to be the next Bachelor.
“Everyone knows, you just go to the bar and you can find someone. But you don’t want ‘someone’ – you want to make sure you find the right one,” he said.
Cummins embraced his reality-TV experience and even got stuck in when it came to planning some of his dates.
“There are parts of it that are really fun,” he said.
“Some of the dates are pretty creative with good vibes. I’ve definitely sat down and done some brainstorming on what I think would be a goodvibe date with a girl.”
Cummins kept an open mind and says he was careful to approach The Bachelor with no one person, or type of person, in mind.
“I feel like I’ve done that before and it doesn’t work for me,” he said.
“You set your goal of finding the girl who’s been put on this planet for you, you don’t put any restrictions on what she looks like or what colour her hair is, you don’t put on any limitations.
“For me, I like to set the goal and then know that the universe can provide any shape, form, hair colour, personality. I believe it’s more about the souls aligning and your life paths matching up.”
As one of the most unique Bachelors in the show’s his- tory, he’s hoping to reignite interest in traditional Aussie culture through his sayings and expressions.
“It’s quite a natural thing, but I feel it seems to be disappearing from our Gen Y’s vernacular and that’s a sad thing,” he said.
“Sitting around the dinner table or at dad’s work, hearing a lot of shearers or tradesman, they’ve got a bit of the old-school language that our grandfathers have and it’s something we should cherish and grow.
“My dad runs a landscape building construction business and I used to sit around and hear the stories and different Australian slang, it was amazing.” The Bachelor Australia Wednesday and Thursday, 7.30pm on Ten Digital