It’s time for the sons of guns to shine
Caleb Clarke and Tommy Talau are two sons of Kiwi sports stars making their mark in the rugby codes. Clarke lit up the Blues’ Super Rugby Aotearoa victory over the Highlanders on Saturday night with an electrifying try he later dedicated to his grandfather, who died just before kickoff.
The 21-year-old is the son of 10-test All Blacksmidfielder Eroni Clarke, and the way he has been playing this season raises hope of a second black jersey in the family wardrobe soon.
Talau, 20, touched down twice for his first NRL tries in the Wests Tigers’ 34-6 thrashing of his father Willie Talau’s old club, the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday.
Talau’s dad played 13 tests for the Kiwis and three for Samoa, and won a Super League title and four Challenge Cup finals with English club St Helen’s.
His performance earned plaudits from Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire.
‘‘He is a quality kid,’’ Maguire, the Kiwis coach, told Nrl.com. ‘‘He has probably played more in the centres or the back row but I put him on the wing a couple of weeks ago and he shined for us. I think he has found a spot there, which is good.’’
Following in a father’s sprigmarks isn’t always an easy assignment for sporting tyros.
But Clarke, who now has two tries and four try assists in Super Rugby Aotearoa, adopted a positive attitude when he spoke to Stuff in 2017 at the time of his Auckland debut as a teenager.
‘‘I’mproud of my dad for all of his achievements,’’ Clarke said then. ‘‘At the same time with that comes a bit of expectation on you to do well. It’s both good and bad but over the years I’ve learned to deal with that and just to know who I am and have a sense of identity.
‘‘It was really hard at one point. I sort of felt like I didn’t really have an identity at all. I thought I’mjust Eroni’s son, and that’s all I’mgoing to be.
‘‘It took a while . . . the first year I made NZ schools, I looked at the calibre of players, and I was in year 12, and year 12s rarelymake that team, and I asked myself ‘is it just because I’mthe son of an All Black?’
‘‘I had to reassuremyself who I was, and that I’mcaleb Clarke. Yes, I’mthe son of an All Black, but that’s not who I am.’’
Clarke, a former Mt Albert Grammar first XV player, is a bigger chip off the old block – he’s 1.89m and 107kg whereas Eroni was 1.86m and 90kg during his test career with the All Blacks between 1992 and 1998.
Eroni was the ideal All Blacks squad member with his ability to play in the midfield and on the wing, but Caleb is cutting his capers as specialist left wing, who could be putting pressure on George Bridge’s claim for the All Blacks’ No 11 jumper.
Clarke isn’t the only second generation star at the Blues this year. No 8 Hoskins Sotutu’s father Waisake was a former Blues and Fiji wing.
There are 11 sons of former Super Rugby players currently with the five New Zealand squads.
The group includes Crusaders flanker Ethan Blackadder, whose
father, Todd, captained the All Blacks in 2000.
Brothers Jackson GardenBachop (Hurricanes) and Connor Garden-bachop are the sons of two former New Zealand internationals, ex-all Black Stephen Bachop and Black Fern Sue Garden-bachop. TALAU TALE
Tommy Talau was born in Sydney while dadwillie was playing for the Bulldogs, for whom he had 101 NRL games.
Talau senior spent seven years in the English Super League with St Helen’s and the Salford to complete his career.
Back in Sydney, Tommy joined the Bulldogs junior ranks and captained the club’s SG Ball grand final team in 2018, the same year he became an Australian Schoolboys representative.
He made his NRL debut at centre for the Wests Tigers in round 22 last year.
Talau returned to first grade in round five this year, but tweaked a hamstring in the loss to the Raiders and was sidelined for a week.
Returned to the lineup for the Bulldogs game, he was excited after the final whistle after scoring two tries from the left wing, running for 156 metres and making three tackle breaks.
‘‘That’s my first win and my first couple of tries [in the NRL], which is unreal,’’ he said in a video interview on the Wests Tigers website. ‘‘It’s just good to be back.’’
Talau scored his first after the Bulldogs spilled a kick, but his second was a cracker – resulting in him diving between two tacklers to dot down one-handed just inside the left-hand corner flag.
It would have been a proud moment for his father, who said at the time of his son’s 2019 debut that he was ‘‘really excited for him’’ and felt he could have a big future in the game. ‘‘He’s definitely got the work ethic. The sky is the limit for him.
‘‘Tommy is extremely competitive and just loves footy,’’ Willie Talau said. ‘‘He loves to learn about it, he’s a student of the game, always asking questions. He watches a lot of games on tele and tries to gather asmuch information as he can.’’
Willie Talau – 1.81m and 93 kg – was a tough tackling centre in his prime, but Tommy is bigger, at 1.87m and 96kg.