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'I thought Cork was a small place but the rugby world is even smaller'
By Liam Heagney
Two weeks on from the amazing sight of Oli Hoskins stepping off the Wallabies bench with twelve minutes to go versus England at Twickenham, London Irish boss Declan Kidney is still beaming about how the uncapped tighthead became an emergency call-up, going from club training that Monday to make a Test debut five days later.
The 28-year-old had been playing the fantasy-fiction game Dungeons and Dragons with some friends on November 7 when he noticed he had two missed called from a random number. It was Petrus du Plessis, the Wallabies scrum coach and his old Irish teammate, wondering if his pal Hoskins was fit.
The next day, Hoskins was training away in the gym at Irish when he was told at 11am he had officially been called up by Australia.
Twenty minutes later he was bounding in the doors of the Wallabies team hotel at The Lensbury. That was Monday and three days later he was named on the replacements bench versus England as concussions had ruled out tightheads Taniela Tupou and Allan Alaalatoa. Two days after that he was replacing James Slipper in front of 82,000 people at Twickenham. Wow!
Two weeks on from that incredible moment, Hoskins will be back in the vicinity of Twickenham this Saturday, packing down for London Irish as they take on Harlequins in a Premiership match at The Stoop.
"I thought Cork was a small place but the rugby world is even smaller," quipped Irish boss Kidney to RugbyPass when asked for his thoughts on how the son of English parents, who grew up in Perth dreaming of representing the Wallabies, finally lived that dream in the most amazingly spontaneously way. "Petrus who was working here, he was tighthead here with Oli and then Petrus started his scrum coaching here as player-coach.
"He then headed off to Glasgow, did a little bit there and now he is in with the Aussies as scrum coach and Petrus went the back door route to ask Oli was he fit. So the official enquiries came in after that. It was all done very quickly.
"He enjoyed it. There is enough stuff on YouTube and everything about what it meant to him [Hoskins shed tears at the Wallabies team announcement]. He will probably get ribbed about that at some stage but it was just one of those really good sporting moments.
"He has been training well since he came in. It was a story that shows all schoolboys that if you stick at it you never know what is going to come your way and he really enjoyed his time in camp. It was odds-on that if the lads passed their HIA test that they were going to come back in for that last Test (against Wales) but he really enjoyed his experience and he will be all the richer for it. He is going to be up against it the weekend with Joe Marler, so another big task ahead of him on Saturday."
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Latest Comments
I think the best 15 we have is DMac. Jordan at 14.
Go to commentsIt certainly needs to be cherished. Despite Nick (and you) highlighting their usefulness for teams like Australia (and obviously those in France they find form with) I (mention it general in those articles) say that I fear the game is just not setup in Aus and NZ to appreciate nor maximise their strengths. The French game should continue to be the destination of the biggest and most gifted athletes but it might improve elsewhere too.
I just have an idea it needs a whole team focus to make work. I also have an idea what the opposite applies with players in general. I feel like French backs and halves can be very small and quick, were as here everyone is made to fit in a model physique. Louis was some 10 and 20 kg smaller that his opposition and we just do not have that time of player in our game anymore. I'm dying out for a fast wing to appear on the All Blacks radar.
But I, and my thoughts on body size in particular, could be part of the same indoctrination that goes on with player physiques by the establishment in my parts (country).
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