RISE OF PAENGA-AMOSA IS SET FOR NEXT CHAPTER
TAOMORROW’S opening Test against Ireland presents the latest chapter in the remarkable rise of Brandon PaengaAmosa, Australia’s 22-year-old debutant hooker.
Born in Auckland, the New Zealand native was raised in Sydney and spent time working as a rubbish man and studying theology before getting his chance to shine with the Western Sydney Rams.
As recently as 12 months ago, few Wallabies supporters would have known his name, but in Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium tomorrow he will win the first cap in what is hoped will be a long, fruitful career.
‘I’m still pinching myself. It’s pretty crazy,’ admitted PaengaAmose, who earned his call up on the back of a hugely impressive debut season with the Queensland Reds, where former Leinster star Brad Thorn is on the coaching books.
The ex-All Black was so impressed that he singled him out to Ireland boss Joe Schmidt earlier in the year.
‘I learnt a lot as a garbage man, through my studies, through landscaping, all the odd jobs that I did,’ Paenga-Amosa continued. ‘It really helped me to be the man that I am today.’
The young Austrlian also spent time teaching kids at Sydney’s Endeavour Sports High School, and believes that experience will help him negotiate the first few weeks of his international career.
‘I used to teach young boys how to be resilient and what resilience looks like. I realised that if I am going to teach this, I’ve really got to be resilient myself.
‘And that’s basically been my motto, just be resilient and just keep bouncing back — no matter what happens. No matter all the setbacks, no matter how many times I got cut short, no matter how many times I was told I was not good enough or not fast enough — I just always made sure I kept working hard.’
The hooker – who admitted to shedding a tear when he found out that he had made the team will line up alongside Scott Sio and 91-test veteran Sekope Kepu in the Wallabies’ front row, while Reds teammate and fellow debutant Caleb Timu [24] has also been handed his chance in the No8 shirt by Australia boss Michael Cheika. Flanker Pete Samu [26] can win his first cap off the bench, and Chieka explained that his young guns have all got in the team on merit.
‘I don’t think I’ve seen guys come in so eager to get into it,’ said Cheika, who spent five years as Leinster boss before being replaced by Schmidt.
Ireland have come out on top in the last two meetings between the teams, but haven’t won in Australia for 39 years.
Still, Cheika is wary of just how potent a threat Schmidt’s finelytuned side will present over the next few weeks.
‘They’re the best team Ireland has had since the start of their rugby history,’ Cheika added.
‘They’re coming down here as number two in the world. They can claim that they’re underdogs as much as they like but they’re certainly going to be the favourites when you go off the back of the season they’ve had. They believe they’re coming here to win 3-0, no doubt about it from what I’ve read and seen.’
With Schmidt resting a number of his front-line Leinster men for tomorrow’s opening Test, Cheika also admitted there is an added element of the unknown about this new-look Ireland team.
‘I obviously know them pretty well,’ he added. ‘Maybe not as much a lot of the newer guys but they’re extremely competitive and they’ve got great players, out-and-out great players but also new players like [Joey] Carbery, [Garry] Ringrose, these guys you don’t even know, [Robbie] Henshaw, [James] Ryan the young second rower.
‘I don’t know Tadhg Furlong, he wasn’t there when I was there, but he’s been immense for them. So they’ve got out-and-out gun players, the back rowers as well, and they’re very consistent.
‘We tried to cram as much as we can into six days, so we’ve put the focus on ourselves and we’ll deliver some things that will try to make them get off the consistent game they play.’
“I used to teach young boys how to be resilient”