Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Wallabies and Australian test legend Michael O’Connor on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!

Former dual international Michael O’Connor has revealed his own father didn’t speak to him for three years after his decision to deflect from rugby union to rugby league.

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

In a tell-all interview with Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson airing on Tuesday night, the Manly premiership winner also details his early interactions with Queensland legend Wally Lewis – including a huge “lesson” on the field.

Originally raised in Canberra, O’Connor is remembered as one of Australia most-capped dual internationals, appearing in 13 Wallabies Tests from 1979 to 1982 before a further 17 Tests in the Kangaroos jumper from 1985 to 1990.

He was part of the famous Australian schoolboys union outfit that toured in 1977-78 before producing no less than 10 future Wallabies: O’Connor, the three Ella brothers, Tony Melrose, Chris Roche, Michael Hawker, Tony D’Arcy, Dom Vaughan and Shane Nightingale.

“Going away with that team showed me a different side of the world and just how good a team could be if everyone was on the same page. To this day that team has stayed very close. We meet up every year, they haven’t changed,” O’Connor told Face to Face.

Among the decorated list of names in the famous undefeated British tour was none other than Wally Lewis, who plied his trade as a promising fly-half before converting to rugby league for his professional career.

According to O’Connor, Lewis taught him some valuable lessons on the field during those formative days.

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!

Braith: “Have some balls!” | 01:41

“Wally Lewis is the most competitive person I’ve ever played against. He was the player of my generation,” O’Connor said.

“Wally stands out to me because he was just so competitive. I remember the first time I played against him, I was captain of ACT and he was captain of Queensland. We would meet them in the semi-final. As you do in rugby, you run out and go to shake hands with the opposite captain – he just looked at me and spat on me.

“The referee didn’t do anything and all game, Wally just played over the top of me. He wasn’t interested in anyone else on the field.

“If I’d just passed the ball he’d take me out, he’d tell me what he was going to do with my mother and my sister. I was traumatised after the game, he absolutely gave me a lesson.

“If you were a threat to Wally on the football field, look out. It was Wally’s way, he was just such a competitor. But he also had great football instinct.”

Following a decorated stint with the Wallabies, O’Connor admitted he was lured to rugby league by its more professional standards at the time, and the opportunity for a regular income.

Michael O’Connor in action.Source: News Corp Australia

It was a move he believes was the right one for his career, even if those in his close circle – including even his father at the time – vehemently disagreed.

“I got an offer from St George and I thought to myself ‘maybe I should be considering going to rugby league’,” O’Connor remembers.

“There’s no money in rugby at this point. [St George] offered me $40,000, which back in the early 80s was a lot of money. I was pulling beers at the Paddington Hotel.

“My father didn’t talk to me for three years. He thought, ‘you’re going to rugby league – you’re going to be a deadbeat’. I was never to be spoken about again, sort of thing. Back then, if you went to rugby league there was no way in the world you would ever come back.

“The team mates were good, they understood. Chris Roche is a really good mate of mine and in the end he sealed the deal. He said ‘mate you’re mad if you don’t take that money’. It turned out to be the right decision.”

Unpacking the fallout from Dragons drama | 07:14

While O’Connor admits it took him a while to find his feet, his stocks soon rose in rugby league, first for St George and then for Manly, where he would go onto secure a premiership in the Winfield Cup.

Origin and then Test appearances in the Kangaroo jersey would soon follow – and as O’Connor explained to Sampson, some legendary stories were to emerge from some brutal exchanges on the field.

“For me it was the accomplishment of [representing Australia in both codes] and it was a goal of mine,” he said.

“I think I was a better rugby league player. I played more rugby league, 10 years. I really only had about three or four years of rugby before going into rugby league.”

O’Connor would eventually return to his roots, working as a selector and in administration to nurture the next generation of Wallabies coming through the system.

In a serendipitous twist, he would help usher in a wave of rugby league converts to union, including Mat Rogers, Lote Tuquiri and Wendell Sailor.

Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Wallabies and Australian test legend Michael O’Connor on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!