Rob Valetini is hoping to have finally put an injury-hit season behind him that includes the revelation that he played through the pain barrier in his sole appearance for the Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions.
Having missed the opening match of the series in Brisbane, the Australian back-rower was selected to start in Melbourne the following weekend. Despite taking a bang just 20 minutes in at the MCG, he somehow managed to still play on until the interval before getting subbed off with a calf injury.
That issue persisted as the 27-year-old featured in just four of the Wallabies’ six Rugby Championship matches, but he has now declared himself fully ready for this Saturday’s clash with England at Twickenham after coming through last Saturday’s win over Japan.
Sharing the top-of-the-week media duties in London with Aidan Ross, who last Saturday became just the fifth ever player to represent both the Wallabies and the All Blacks following his debut in Tokyo, Valetini was asked to jog his memory back to last July when Australia were hosting Andy Farrell’s Lions.
“I’ll remember it for the rest of my life…”
It was a bittersweet experience as Valetini was battling injury, yet still immensely proud to play a small part in the series the Lions won 2-1. “It was a bit frustrating with the injury, but I guess it is what it is,” he said.
“I was just pretty happy to play against the Lions, especially in Melbourne, where I was born, so I was happy to have my family there at the MCG in front of 90,000. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life, even though it was only 40 minutes. It was awesome. We grew as a team, and our depth as a team grew as well. It helped us to where we are now.”
Delving into the specifics of his injury, Valetini added: “I wasn’t ready for that one [the opener in Brisbane]. I had training that morning, just to go through my paces, doing a bit of breakdown and stuff, and it felt pretty good heading into the Melbourne week.
“I did it [the reinjury] somewhat early and just wanted to stay on. Maybe 20 minutes in and [I] just wanted to keep playing. It was best to come off at half-time. It was unfortunate that we didn’t get the win there, but it was an awesome experience.
“It felt fast. I got involved a lot more than I thought I was going to get involved in. For me and Will (Skelton), having sat out the first game and watched from the sidelines, I thought there was a bit more hunger from us in the second game.
“And having that Lions game in Melbourne, that was enough motivation just to play in front of my family and against the Lions, even more motivation. I just wanted to go out there and empty the tank. I only lasted 40 minutes.”
Hurt in Melbourne, it was four weeks before Valetini was ready to take the pitch again, facing the Springboks in Cape Town. He managed to string together three successive Championship starts before the injury struck again, ruling him out of the trip to Auckland to take on the All Blacks.
He returned for the following weekend’s rematch in Perth, was then selected to face Japan three weeks later and has now insisted he is 100 per cent fit with the hype starting to crank up ahead of the Wallabies’ return to Twickenham, a ground where they pulled off a late, late victory last year against Steve Borthwick’s England.
“It’s just something I am trying to stay on top of, just doing my extra strength work at the gym and the little one per cents I can do to help with my calf,” he said about his latest injury prehab.
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“I guess that has probably been one of my main focuses, to be consistently out there on the training paddock and be available for games and selection. I’ve sort of been in and out, so it has been hard to put games together and try and play to the best of my ability.
“My body, I feel like I am 100 per cent. It’s just trying to get the confidence back and build momentum so I can play at my best and do my job for the team.”
Switching to 30-year-old loosehead Ross and his debut last weekend for the Wallabies as a sub in Tokyo three years after he won his only All Blacks cap versus Ireland in Dunedin, the prop was asked about the novelty of representing two countries.
“I haven’t put too much time into answering that question,” he replied. “I was proud to represent the All Blacks, and I am as equally proud to represent the Wallabies.
“Life is a journey, and your rugby career is a journey and it goes different ways. It was an awesome part of my journey, New Zealand, and now that journey has closed, I have moved the family over to Australia and they are loving it. I love it, they love it, we are onto the next part of the journey now.”
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