There is a story on Tom today. Can anyone access it. It's a member's only story
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Rugby 2022: Wallabies star Tom Wright reveals how Joeys, Manly Sea Eagles, made him a man
Wallabies winger Tom Wright walked an unusual path from the NRL to rugby but it laid the foundation for him to chase his dream and he’s ready to make a statement against England.
Not often will you hear about benefits of a private school education from footballers, but that is where Tom Wright learned to be a man.
The St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill product runs out for his ninth Wallabies Test on Saturday night, against England at Suncorp Stadium, having walked an unusual path from the NRL.
Wright, 24, held out Suliasi Vunivalu for the right wing spot, and the tutelage he received from his Joeys coaches and a trio of Manly Sea Eagles legends has him primed to deliver a career-defining performance.
“I was very fortunate to go to a top-tier private school in Sydney, they gave me every opportunity to do what I do now,” Wright said.
“I’m not sure if I was somewhere else the opportunity might have come.
“They taught me how to be a man pretty early, I was able to move straight out of school and be independent from the minute I left. I went from the gates of boarding school straight to the NRL pre-season.
“I was able to run my own race and not need anyone to wipe my arse.
“The things you’re learning on the way, you’re not realising at the time but how you structure your week, you get handfed less and less as the years progress, you’re weaned off being told what to do, where to be, how to get your work done, all the help is there but it’s very much for you to go and get it yourself.
“Myself and Tom Horton, who is at the Waratahs, we were captain and vice-captain at school.
“We both went on two very different journeys, but to see both of us come out, in 2020 we were both in Wallabies camp for the first time.
“He’s still yet to get a cap but I’m almost certain that time will come.
“We were best mates all the way through school. We come from way different walks of life before we met in Year 7, to be able to go all the way through and take two different paths – he churned away at Sydney Uni for a few years, I went to Manly – we butt heads now he’s at the Tahs and I’m at the Brumbies.”
Wright joined the Sea Eagles in 2017, before making his NRL debut the following season.
“Coming out of school I could’ve gone either way, the opportunity to go professional at Manly straight away was an awesome one, I wouldn’t change that decision if I was to turn back the clock six years,” Wright said.
“To be able to learn off a bunch of guys that were at the top of their game at that point in their careers, but the opportunity to go the Brumbies is probably where I was able to take my professional game to the next level.
“[Tom Trbojevic] was probably only in his second year at that point, the first year I got there, there was still the likes of Jamie Lyon, Brett Stewart, Steve Matai all still floating around, in the last year of their career at the time, not knowing it would be their last.
“Being able to chew the fat and learn habits of professionals, I’m a little skinny 18-year-old, seeing the guys that have been through the rollercoaster of rugby league [was valuable].
“It was no secret Turbo was going to be able to do what he’s done so far. People are writing him off from his journey back from his shoulder injury already, there’ll be no troubles for him, he’s one of a kind.”
But then came the offer to return to union, and join the Brumbies under coach Dan McKellar, now the Wallabies assistant.
“Going to rugby again after leaving St Joseph’s and the opportunity to wear the gold jersey came off the back of being able to do some stuff at the Brumbies after Dan gave me an opportunity.
“I wanted to play for the Wallabies. You sell yourself short if you come across and want to sit in the middle order and be content with that. I made no secret to myself and publicly, if anyone asked at the time, that’s what my aspirations were.”
After a stellar 2020 Super Rugby season, Wright debuted for Australia against the All Blacks that November, and has managed two tries in his eight Tests so far.
But keeping Queensland favourite Vunivalu out of the team this week?
“I was confident in everything I’d done, there’s no point worrying about anyone else,” Wright said. “I don’t read what youse right, I do my own thing.
“You’re probably playing the wrong game if you’re too worried about your own performance, you play a team sport for a reason.
“The trophy is on the line, if that’s not enough motivation you may have to look elsewhere. You’ve only got to look at the other 22 guys that you take the field with, if doing the job for them and not letting the jersey down isn’t enough you probably have to have a good look at yourself.
“Ideally running out and coming off the field with the trophy in hand, there’s no other real option for us at the moment, winning is the end goal.”
