‘Bolter’ Jacobson overjoyed by cup selection
In the space of a few hours yesterday morning, Luke Jacobson’s phone turned from a potential heart-attack merchant to a busy well-wishing machine.
After 23 minutes’ test footy, the 22-year-old loose forward from Cambridge was a bolter in the All Blacks’ 31-man squad named for the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off next month.
With only unsuccessful players getting a phone call from the selectors and the rest finding out at the same time as everyone else at the midday Eden Park announcement, Jacobson had no idea whether he had booked himself a ticket to Tokyo.
‘‘I was real nervous, definitely this morning and last night,’’ he said. ‘‘Any little buzz on my phone I was pretty scared of looking at. I literally had no little inkling leading into it.’’
Clearly a long-term-looking All Black, having impressed for the Chiefs in his two seasons in Super Rugby, it had appeared the World Cup may have just come about too soon for the former New Zealand Under-20s captain.
After making his debut off the bench in the opening test of the year – the 20-16 Rugby Championship win over Argentina in Buenos Aires last month – Jacobson wasn’t selected to face the Springboks in Wellington the following weekend, then despite being retained in the trimmed-down Bledisloe Cup squad, the return of concussion-like symptoms – having been seriously affected by head knocks in the past few years – saw him miss those matches.
It meant just one more outing before the World Cup squad was named – a Mitre 10 Cup match for Waikato against Counties Manukau in Pukekohe last Saturday night, where Jacobson put in a superb performance at No 8 in the Mooloos’ 31-26 win.
And as the minutes to noon yesterday ticked by, it was suddenly apparent to Jacobson – Waikato’s first born-and-bred All Black since Regan King in 2002 that he might just be in the mix.
‘‘I was actually sitting at home by myself watching the telly,’’ Jacobson said. ‘‘I had planned to watch with my parents but I ended up having to come back to Hamilton in the morning. So I shot home, hoping some of the flatmates would be home, just in case. But, nah.’’
Jacobson said the feelings were similar to when his name was read out for the All Blacks for the first time last month – ‘‘just a rush of joy’’, ‘‘really exciting, top of the moon’’, with no-one on hand to rein in any celebrations.
Then there was indeed some communication to be had with others, with friends to converge for dinner back at the parents’ place last night.
‘‘A pretty quick message came in from Mum, and she’s just obviously real proud and stoked for me,’’ Jacobson said. ‘‘Same as the old man, who got a message in.
‘‘And then my brother ended up coming home within 10 minutes, and same sort of vibe from him, just real chuffed for me and real excited.’’
Jacobson said he hadn’t fully backed himself to make the cut, but didn’t write himself off either, and was happy he’d put in the best effort he could to be considered.