The Aussie rugby star who defies ALL the stereotypes He chained himself to a digger outside a coal mine
David Pocock’s a climate change campaigner and won’t marry his girlfriend until gay men can wed
‘People were being killed... it was time for us to leave’
THERE is no mould that fits David Pocock. Australia’s imperious flanker is a one-man antidote to the notion that modern rugby players are cut from the same, orthodox cloth. The 27-year-old is a non-conformist on an epic scale; a free-thinker who refuses to dilute his views in order to placate his employers or fit in with wider societal norms.
Pocock is arguably the world’s premier openside; a master of the breakdown. He poses a grave threat to England at Twickenham on Saturday and he could have a major influence on the outcome of World Cup Pool A. But that won’t suffice for him. ‘It is very easy to have this persona as a rugby player and essentially you use that as your identity,’ he told Sportsmail.
‘You see guys retire from rugby and they fall apart a bit because that’s all they have. I’ve always said that I don’t want rugby to define me and I’ve got a fair bit going on outside rugby.’
That is a colossal understatement. Pocock is essentially living several lives at once. He backs a charitable foundation in Zimbabwe after his family fled from the violent land-grabs in that country and relo- cated to Australia. He is a climate change activist who has been arrested for what he believes in. He is staunch supporter of gay rights and has spoken out against homophobia in rugby. And he is a keen gardener, who owns chickens.
Take his early childhood in Africa as a starting point. ‘I feel very fortunate to have had the upbringing I did,’ he said. ‘I grew up on a farm and most of it is very fond memories. Obviously in 1999, 2000 it all started to go downhill a bit, but while my family, being white farmers, were the victims in some ways, we were incredibly privileged to be able to move to Australia and start a new life, which wasn’t the case for millions of people.’
Asked if he had clear memories of the time when Rob- ert Mugabe’s thugs began to ‘reclaim’ farms, Pocock added: ‘Yeah. I would have been 12 or 13 when it started. It was certainly scary. The way that it happened was incredibly politically-motivated and the violence spiralled out of control.
‘My family would never have considered leaving Zimbabwe and it was only when that violence started and we knew a few people who had been killed, we thought it was time to move. The white farmers got a lot of press all over the world but the reality is that the farm workers probably copped it the hardest, in terms of being beaten, losing their jobs and being forced out. Around a million farm workers were displaced.’
Pocock tries to go back at least once a year to Zimbabwe, where his foundation works with rural communities in an effort to galvanise the local economy. The situation in the country is less volatile now but he added: ‘It’s still pretty bleak. They scrapped the Zimbabwe currency and it’s a lot more stable with the US dollar, but it’s still tough.’
His family’s enforced migration took them to Queensland and the teenager was in his element at a school in Brisbane which emphatically catered for his varied sporting interests. He thrived on land and in the water.
‘I played water polo and I loved that, but I didn’t enjoy the swimming fitness stuff,’ he said. ‘I think it was something to do with having your head down and not being able to chat to your mates!’ Ultimately, his prowess in the pool was just a passing diversion and rugby claimed him. In 2006, Pocock made his Super Rugby debut for the Perthbased Western Force and in 2008 — six years to the day after his family had arrived in Australia — he made his Test debut against the All Blacks in Hong Kong. But he was making a name for himself in various ways, not just by excelling in his work. In 2012, Pocock was named Western Australia’s ‘Young Australian of the Year’ on account of his community work in Zimbabwe and he was frequently involved in campaigns for action on climate change.
In November last year, he was arrested after joining the ‘Leard blockade’ — chaining himself to a super-digger outside a coal mine in Leard State Forest in a show of solidarity with a farmer, Rick Laird. Pocock appeared in court in February and the charge against him was confirmed but he was not convicted.
Taking action of this nature did not endear the player to the Australian Rugby Union but he feels the cause is worthy enough to justify his protest. ‘It sometimes puts the ARU in a tough position but it had got to the point where I felt like I had to take some sort of action,’ said Pocock. ‘ Locking myself to this enormous super-digger alongside someone like Rick Laird was in some ways a very small thing but it was quite meaningful for me personally.
‘He is this amazing farmer who was head of the rural fire brigade. He’s essentially what my dad would have been back in Zimbabwe — a real salt- of-the- earth farmer who had avoided any sort of political action because he was such a well-respected person in the community.
‘But eventually when the effects of the mining could really be seen he had had enough. I think it’s going to take more and more of those sorts of people taking a stand before we see some meaningful action. Last year I was involved in a number of rallies. If you live on earth, which all of us do, climate change is a pretty big issue. We need action and we’re not seeing action. Our politicians aren’t going to do it and it’s all of our futures.
‘People say that sport and politics shouldn’t mix but I think it is important that sports people are interested in stuff outside of sport and talk about it. Rightly or wrongly, kids look up to professional athletes and if I can get young kids thinking about those sorts of issues that is a positive thing.’
It is not just climate change that Pocock — as a prominent Australian sportsman — is interested in and is prepared to speak up about. He and his partner, Emma, live
together in Canberra, where he now plays for the Brumbies.
But they have repeatedly stated that they will not t marry until there are equal marriage rights for gay people in Australia.
Pocock’s strong feelings on this subject came to a head in the recent Super Rugby season when he complained to a referee during a game about homophobic abuse from a rival Waratahs player.
The subsequent debate polarised opinions in the rugby community Down Under but his willingness to take a stand so publicly was widely heralded. ‘ There has been a huge societal shift in terms of marriage equality and the push towards that, and also challenging homophobia,’ said Pocock. ‘The ARU came up with an inclusion policy which was a first in Australian sport and one I really supported.
‘In the game (v Waratahs), a number of players brought it up with the ref and it was handled really well by the ARU. It gets people involved with rugby at all levels thinking and talking about issues that may not affect them personally but are pretty destructive to people in our community. If you look at some of the statistics around young people involved in our sport who are gay and feel uncomfortable about it, a huge percentage of them don’t play sport for fear of being discriminated against. To me, sport should break down those boundaries. That was certainly my experience moving to Australia.
‘I had this funny accent . . . but as soon as I got on the sporting field I was just another team-mate. I guess as a white male, there is a fair bit of privilege there and that’s not the case with a lot of people.
‘In rugby, someone like Gareth Thomas has really challenged the perception of what it means to be a tough rugby player. We have such a skewed perception of what it means to be a rugby player where you’re heterosexual, tough and nothing bothers you. Then you see someone like him who talks about what he went through.
‘To me, it shouldn’t be up to those players to make that sort of brave decision, we should be creating an environment where that’s not a big thing, to be honest with their teammates and say, “This is who I am”.’
Pocock has had ample time to pursue and support his non-rugby causes, due to the career- stalling impact of two successive knee reconstruction operations.
He played just five matches in two years — going from a man heralded as one of the world’s leading forwards to a frustrated observer as the game passed him by. He did fear for his future, but as ever, he put his predicament in context and located a silver lining.
‘You are always going to have those thoughts (about being forced to retire) — particularly after the second one,’ he said.
‘To have it go again made me think, “What is my body trying to tell me?” But I knew that if I could get back to being fit and enjoying my rugby again, I was capable of getting back to my best.
‘A lot of it is mental. You can’t take away from the emotional and physical toll and how that impacts on your family, but you have to have a bit of perspective. You’re still getting paid and you’ve still got physios training you. It’s not terminal. Compared to a lot of people you’re doing all right.’
Thanks in part to those physios and friends, his family and his own personal will, Pocock has reached a peak again in time for this World Cup. Operating in the No 8 shirt — alongside fellow openside Michael Hooper, in a potent back- row combination — he was outstanding for the Wallabies in their victory over Fiji last week.
He has the poacher’s credentials to be a dominant figure at this tournament, but the success or failure of Australia’s campaign will not define him. Whatever happens in the days and weeks ahead, this non-conformist’s life will go on.