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'I'm going to have to adapt': Jamie Roberts gearing up for 'different game'
By AAP
Jamie Roberts expects his 35-year-old legs to be asked new questions in a cameo for the NSW Waratahs this season.
Nine years after the British and Irish Lions star scored against the Wallabies in their final Sydney test, the Welsh centre will call the city home.
His shock mid-season departure from the Dragons comes with his Sydney-born wife expecting their second child.
Roberts will have his hands full there, while he also wants to learn how to surf.
But after dominating Europe's heavier tracks with Harlequins, Bath and the Dragons, perhaps his greatest test will be adapting to the faster style of rugby and contributing to a team that lost every game last season.
"It's a different game; faster track, hand speed of the players, the skill-set," Roberts, who got a brief taste of Super Rugby in a shortened 2020 stint with Cape Town's Stormers, said.
"Northern Hemisphere [rugby], it's on heavier pitches, quite attritional, a lot of kick-chase, the ball can be greasy.
"What I'm fully expecting here is like South Africa, width on the ball, faster, quicker way of playing.
"I feel like I'm winning collisions and keeping up with the pace of the game, but I'm going to have to adapt quickly."
Roberts played the last of his 94 Tests in 2017 and now has the chance to nurture a midfield that boasts freshly-capped Wallabies centres Izaia Perese and Lalakai Foketi.
And he's aware of the impact he can make after new coach Darren Coleman sounded him out following injuries to fellow midfielders Joey Walton and Mosese Tuipulotu.
"You want lads striving to get into the team, so be that guy, be a good team man," he said.
"There's a lot of young players here and ... I probably learned more from the senior players by my side than coaches in my youth.
"When you get older you realise that job's yours."
Match-fit and injury-free, Roberts could get the ultimate Australian welcome if he plays against the Reds in a trial game in the far-flung Queensland town of Roma next weekend.
Round 1 pits the Waratahs against newcomers Fijian Drua at CommBank Stadium on February 18.
"The coach would want to work with the amount of potential that's there and to play with a group like that is going to be awesome," he said.
- Murray Wenzel
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Latest Comments
Wow.... Just wow!
Eben managed to make more meters and average more meters per carry than both Barrett and Vaai in both games and played fewer minutes.
Eben also made double digit tackles in Capetown and actually had 3 more tackles than both players. plus he had a higher completion rate than vaai and equal to Barrett in Joberg. Yes he was manhandled by a 113kg hooker but I believe Barrett was sat down by a 75kg winger. Which is more acceptable?
What BS about Kolbes line break completion. So Dmacs, and Will Jordan and right have far more line breaks... that must mean the ABs and wallabies have out scored every team... oh wait. In half as many games in the TRC Kolbe had 1 less clean break than Will Jordan and topped the list for defenders beaten with 21, next best was 17 and it wasn't DMac, wright or Jordan.
Go to comments😄 Ok ......... keep telling that to all the people who are not entitled to the same benefits or scholarships or payouts and who have to pay for everything because they aren't Maori.............
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