Wallabies monster thankful for mum
WHEN Izack Rodda’s mum swiped his first Wallabies jersey, she was only jumping the gun on a gift of thanks that Australia’s towering new lock already had planned for her.
Being on a crazy collision course with the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday makes you realise the family sacrifices that have meant everything to get you there.
He might have caught great waves surfing in his home town of Evans Head on the far north coast of NSW but his junior footy was always 40km away with Lismore City in rugby and the Ballina Seagulls in rugby league.
“Mum made heaps of sacrifices. She would sit in the car studying to become a schoolteacher but only after she’d driven me 35 minutes to training or those games three or four times a week,” Rodda said.
“The home loan got extended to get me to school at Ipswich Grammar to help my rugby. My first Wallabies jersey ... mum grabbed that one and she deserves it.”
Mum Donna has every right to be proud of the 202cm pillar who crashes ahead eight or nine times a game, wins lineouts and thumps as many bodies as possible for coach Michael Cheika.
Rodda, 21, only made his Reds debut eight months ago yet is now a bullocking beacon for Cheika’s Gen Next Wallabies forward pack with four Tests to his name.
His Wallabies honour cap still sits beside his bed.
“I still pinch myself every day because it’s still not sunk in 100 per cent that I’m a Wallaby,” Rodda said.
“It’s been surreal and I look at that cap most days as a reminder that I’ve got there and have to keep improving every day to stay there.”
There’s an uncomplicated style to the way Rodda carts the ball into anybody and anything, without a stutter, and cleans out bodies at the ruck the same way.
“I remember Dad (John) always taking me on to the field as a young fella and I learnt right there that it doesn’t matter who is in front of you, if you want to run over them, you just do it,” Rodda said.
“I was probably nine or 10 when I got lucky and knocked Dad on to his bum for the first time.”
Rodda’s 15-minute Test debut in Dunedin in August was oh-so-close to a heady victory after his alert work in the brilliant Will Genia try.
Not for a second did he prematurely feel he’d beaten the world champions before the pain of being pipped 35-29 in a classic.
“When Kurtley (Beale) scored with like five minutes to go I thought ‘we’ve got a good chance here if we exit right (from the kick-off)’ but I was always aware they are great at coming back from the depths,” Rodda said.
“The All Blacks are that clinical team everyone talks about and the inch we couldn’t give them at the final kick-off they took and it came back to really hurt us.
“It was super disappointing. I can’t wait to have another crack.”