‘So excited’ as son makes Wallabies squad
CROMWELL woman Camille Ainsley has always been proud of her son’s talent on the rugby field, but says his attitude and mental strength are just as important.
Jermaine Ainsley was this week named as a member of the Wallabies training squad and will find out next week whether he makes the final Australian Wallabies rugby team.
The 22yearold, who attended Cromwell College and Otago Boys’ High School, was ‘‘absolutely rapt’’ with his selection and hoping to make the Wallabies, Miss Ainsley said.
But she said her son’s personal qualities made her just as proud as his rugby ability.
‘‘I’m so excited that he’s made it this far. He has the mental and physical ability to push through. He’s had to really focus and that’s probably why I’m so proud of him, not for the status [of the Wallabies selection] but for his ability to push through and put things into the right perspective and deal with life. That’s what makes him a champion in my eyes.’’
Ainsley, who moved to Perth in 2014 after his family had moved there from Cromwell the previous year, had been selected for a broader Wallabies squad last year but snapped a tendon during a trial game.
His rehabilitation from the injury had taken three months,
and the family had also suffered a recent tragedy, when Ainsley’s uncle and Miss Ainsley’s brother, well known Cromwell speedway champion Daryl Ainsley, was killed in a car crash in May, Miss Ainsley said.
She said family had been integral to her son’s upbringing and success, in particular Mr Ainsley, her other brother Lomas
Ainsley and her son’s siblings and father.
His New Zealand rugby coaches Paul Barlow, of Cromwell, and Ryan Martin, of Dunedin, had provided him with tremendous training and support, and his agent, Warren Alcock, had put him in touch with his first Australian club, Nedlands.
Ainsley then played two years with the Western Force, in Perth, and another year with the Melbourne Rebels.
But Miss Ainsley — who is well known in Cromwell for her careers in fashion retail and real estate, and moved from Australia back to Cromwell after her brother’s death — said it seemed like ‘‘only yesterday that he [Jermaine] was sprinting down the rugby field as a 6yearold’’.
‘‘He loved rugby from the first minute he stepped on the field, and from then on he was always so organised for the games. When he was little the night before he would have all his rugby clothes laid out and ready, right to having his socks hanging over the end of his bed’’.