Perese primed to repay Wallabies’ faith on spring tour
IZAIA Perese is grateful for the second chance offered to him by rugby union after his failed and controversial rugby league stint with the Brisbane Broncos.
One of four uncapped players in the 37-man Wallabies squad that left on Wednesday for a spring tour of Japan and the UK, Perese is ready to repay the faith shown in him by national coach Dave Rennie. The Waratahs centre was set for a Wallabies debut against France earlier this year until he dislocated his shoulder in the final round of the Super Rugby trans-Tasman competition.
The injury also ruled him out of Australia’s Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship campaigns. There were also no guarantees he would recover in time for the spring tour.
“The injury I did, the longest it can be is a six-month injury, the shortest it can be is a fourmonth injury, so we just averaged out to be four and a half (months) is going to be my recovery time,” Perese said.
“My physio ... pretty much just laid out a whole plan ahead of me right at the start. But I had no expectation of making it, it was just a goal, light at the of the tunnel. We worked real hard together on achieving it.”
It’s part of a rocky footballing journey for Perese, an Australian
Schoolboys representative who took his early rugby success “for granted”. It led to a code switch in 2019 when he joined the Broncos.
However the following year he was let go by the NRL club for a drug-related offence.
“The switch to rugby league was all part of the journey I was supposed to take,” Perese said.
A year in the Intrust Super Cup removed any element of complacency from Perese and also gave him some much-needed life balance. “It really taught me valuable lessons that footy isn’t life. I felt like I was just watching and learning,” he said.
“Obviously I mucked up a bit in the past and it just led me to back into rugby union, and I’m pretty grateful that Australian rugby and the Waratahs gave me a second chance.”
But not before a stint last year in French rugby with Bayonne in which Perese hit “rock bottom”.