TOUR AN EYE-OPENER

Australian Stockman Rugby team tours are the stuff of folklore – the best country rugby players on tour. What was your experience like?

AThe same year I had those injuries, Sean Machan called me and said they were taking a team to Argentina, Chile and New Zealand, and wanted to know if I was interested. He was looking for a 10 or 12 and I hadn’t played in the backs for a while. I said I’d been injured and I wasn’t sure how I’d go and he said it’d be fine. That’s the best part of the Stockman family. They’re so confident in your ability, and in you as a person. It’s not about your skill or how good you play, it’s about who you are morally. It was a great tour. We went to NZ and played a police team, and won both of our games. I played 10 there first, and when we went to Chile and

Argentina I played 12. It was an amazing trip. I got to meet a lot of the fellas there – great players, great boys – and it showed the team wasn’t only about talent. It’s about who you are. They took the talent and person together.

What did you learn from that tour you could apply to other parts of your life, and not just in terms of rugby?

AThe big thing we took is mental health, how not to be scared of talking. It was a big one for the boys, everyone came from a different background and different situations. That was big, and that’s what we tried to focus on as a group. We had a lot of chats, a lot of meetings about it. Some stories were amazing. There were stories where you think ‘how did this guy end up with this given what they’ve been through?’ It brought a lot of perspective.