Not quite Julia Roberts, but still a happy hooker – Josh Mann-Rea
Josh Mann-Rea has saved the number of the Wallabies coach in his mobile phone so he never again thinks he’s being pranked with a call-up every rugby journeyman dreams of.
Not getting on as a reserve against South Africa last weekend for the most unlikely Wallabies debut of the professional era has only slightly dented the fairytale that Mann-Rea calls “my wild ride”.
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How can he class it is as anything else when six years ago he was wearing a miner’s lamp and reflective vest in the Wollongong coal mines as a retired footballer.
“I traded footy boots for gumboots and a miner’s lamp so to now be training with the Wallabies, as every footballer dreams off, is a second chance I never imagined,” Mann-Rea, 33, said on Monday.
When Queenslander Paddy Knapp won a spot on the Wallabies reserves bench for the only time for a Test against Fiji in Brisbane in 1961 he was left with only the memory.
“The only time I got to wear the Wallaby jumper was in the studio for the team photo. In those days, you had to hand the jumpers and socks back. They were the days of no replacements so I sat in the stand for the game,” Knapp said.
Mann-Rea gets to keep his jersey. He already has made mental markings on a wall at his Canberra home for the frame.
“Because I was so late into the reserves, it was a spare jersey. I’ve been told it will be embroidered with my name — that’s pretty hard to believe because everyone dreams of that jersey,” the father of two said.
Coach Ewen McKenzie has retained him in the Wallabies squad for Saturday night’s Test against Argentina on the Gold Coast, although the chance of Australia’s No.9-ranked hooker winning a minute is over with Tatafu Polota-Nau fit again, James Hanson proving up to the task and new father Saia Faingaa available.
“I warmed up on the sideline four or five times to be ready if needed in Perth. No problem. I thought (starting hooker) James Hanson played really well,” Mann-Rea said.
“The experience I had that whole week can’t be taken away from me. It started when I had a missed call and text on my phone with the name ‘Ewen’.
“I thought one of my ACT Brumbies teammates was stitching me up. I’ve saved Ewen’s number in my phone if he ever needs me again.”
The Nudgee College product lived most of his early life in Eumundi, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland.
He played the 2002 Brisbane club grand final with Easts, lapped up life with Manly in Sydney, dabbled with the NSW Waratahs academy and retired in 2007 feeling he’d had a few goodtime beers too many to get the most from his career.
“Being young, I had a good time and perhaps didn’t knuckle down to make the most of my opportunity,” he said.
A phone call from Japan, where rugby mates Tom McVerry and Luke Doherty were playing, helped push Mann-Rea to return for the 2009 season there with the Kyuden club.
“It’s been a second chance. I played twice against the British and Irish Lions last year (for the Brumbies and Combined Country), I’ve played with the Waratahs and Brumbies and now this,” Mann-Rea said.
“I’ve heard that ‘journeyman’ tag a bit. I am but a persevering one.”