Lawrence ‘the Bulldozer’ ready for Western Australia Rugby League debut
KUALA LUMPUR: National rugby player Lawrence Petrus will have to wait another month before making his much-awaited professional debut with the University of Western Australia Rugby Club in the 14-team Western Australia Rugby League.
The 25-year-old Sabahan, who plays as a prop, left for Perth in mid-March with high hopes of following in the footsteps of Marc Lee, K. Dinesvaran and Amin Jamaluddin, who all played professional rugby abroad.
However, the global Covid19 pandemic and movement restrictions by the Australian government forced the league to be halted and the Tawauborn forward has had to wait longer to achieve his dream.
In the latest development, the Australian government has decided to lift the lockdown gradually, with gatherings up to 10 persons now permitted, while contact activities are allowed from May 15 and competitions from June 5.
“I was unlucky that the lockdown prevented me from playing rugby and exploring Perth. But I’m still on the right track and am not giving up despite this Covid-19 (pandemic)… Thank God for his blessings. I’m even doing extra workouts on rest days to maintain my fitness.
“Before this, we used to have one-on-one training sessions for conditioning and skills, but now we are able to hold group trainings with a maximum number of 10 people at a time. But we have been advised to adopt social distancing and not share equipment, like rugby ball and drink bottles,” he told Bernama when contacted.
Standing at 178cm, the Kadazan lad, who has signed a one-year contract, aspires to hone his skills further by taking on the best in the Australia after playing a crucial role for the national team in the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) Premier Division campaign the past two years.
“I want to be the best among the best, set an example for all the young lads by teaching them to never quit. The pace of the game may be very different to Malaysia’s… so what I need to do is to improve on my strength and be smarter.
“As you know, all the players here in Australia are physically big, so I have to keep learning to be more confident and trust the process. Besides, our attitude will show who we are, so I am working on that too,” said Lawrence, who is known as the ‘Bulldozer’ in the local rugby fraternity. - Bernama