'I understand the criticism... there is a very proud patriotism here' - Aussie Nick Haining on targeting Test rugby with Scotland
In the spring of 2013, Nick Haining was unceremoniously booted out of the Western Force academy, another one of the thousands of young blokes who empty themselves in pursuit of dreams and contracts and glory and come up short.
It was a desolate time. Twenty-two years old and tossed on the scrapheap – no longer a burgeoning prospect, not yet an established first-teamer. Trapped in rugby no-man’s-land.
For a back row, Haining was still scrawny by the obscene standards of the professional game, despite gobbling too many carbs and throwing back too many beers. He couldn’t for the life of him put on the slabs of lean beef that seemed to layer themselves so easily on the bodies of his peers and rivals.
“I got kicked out of the academy, lost interest, never played for the Force, wasn’t really going anywhere with rugby,” Haining told RugbyPass. “I thought it was the end of the world. I wasn’t doing some of the right stuff – I was going out a bit too much and enjoying myself. At the time, that was more what I wanted to do. It probably took getting kicked out to actually shape up a bit.
“My biggest thing was putting on weight. I remember I got a bit of a hard time for it; I just couldn’t put on weight. You’ve just got to nurture that, put a diet in place, and say it’s not the end of the world if you’re not putting on weight.”
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Eventually, the size came, but academy life taught him harsh lessons about the brutality of the business, the testosterone-ridden rat race to make it as a professional. “I’ve seen a lot of boys coming through, straight out of school into an academy environment, they are tough and taxing,” he explained. “They go through the academy all the way up to training with the senior squad, maybe get a contract and they just burn out. I’ve seen that many a time before.
“Getting kicked out was partly my fault, but you do feel a bit like you have failed. Even when you are in the academy and things aren’t going your way. A lot of boys struggle when they get bad injuries, and they might not let on in the environment, but they’re finding it bloody hard.
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“Having people in place to recognise that and support young players is a huge part of it. People who are in these positions just need to realise it’s tough work for a young lad and there’s a lot of pressure and competition coming through.”
Haining was lucky. He had a doting, rugby-obsessed family and a wonderful base of support at his local club, Cottesloe. Shorn of all their Wallabies, the Force called him back for a hit-out against the touring British and Irish Lions, a riveting night at Subiaco Oval that helped rekindle his ambition.
“I was transitioning into being a back; I was trying to play centre at the time. I came off the bench on the wing for about 20 minutes and I was marking Sean Maitland. I got Owen Farrell’s jersey after the game, which was bloody sick. I stepped Leigh Halfpenny, I’m pretty sure.
"They were devoured by Ireland’s overwhelmingly superior intensity, dismembered like a baby seal tossed into a shark tank."
– @JLyall93 goes to town after a truly degrading Scottish performance in Yokohama #RWC2019https://t.co/fdPTpqXOS9
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 23, 2019
“That was my first professional game ever. I loved it. There were 35,000 there. I had a little chat to Farrell afterwards and got his jersey, but I was quite green still so I kept my mouth shut.”
For a time he went back to Cottesloe, back to his mates and the beers, before a door opened. Two of his Australian pals, Ryan Hodson and Tobias Hoskins, were playing English Championship rugby on the little island of Jersey. They encouraged him to send over a showreel. Before he knew it, there was a contract offer in his inbox.
Haining spent three happy years with the Reds, met his girlfriend Efia and in rugby terms grew from boy to man. “The contacts are just massive, you get some big trucks and some really good players in the Championship,” he said. “It’s a long old season as well. I played every game of my last season. I remember finishing that and just being exhausted.
Players' player – Nick Haining pic.twitter.com/5ZNLwN2fL2
— Jersey Reds (@jerseyrfc) April 30, 2016
“Any word of advice to a young rugby player would be to go and play in a national league or championship league, men’s rugby will develop you, even if you’re not playing week, in week out. That was the big thing that boosted my rugby ability.”
Up at Bristol, Pat Lam liked what he saw. Premiership clubs are constantly vigilant for second tier talent that might flourish given the right platform. Haining was nearly 27 by then, but still a callow professional. Entering the den of the Bears was by turns exhilarating and chastening. “I went there thinking I was a good passer of the ball – it turns out I wasn’t,” he admitted. “My skill-set got a hell of a lot better.”
That gave him a fright, but when he set foot in the gym of a top-flight club and saw the kind of eye-watering weights his team-mates were lumping about, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Haining is a formidable 6ft 4ins and 113kg, but he knows he will never be breaking records on the iron.
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“I’m not taking anything away from strength and conditioning, I know how important it is, but when you get on the field, having a 180kg bench press doesn’t mean you’re the best tackler or defender. You see that time and time again.
“You can look at somebody and see a bit of a physical specimen – I’ve come across a lot of people like that who can run the best times in the bronco and yoyo tests, absolutely smash the gym, then they get on the field and they’re just tickling rucks. Those are all parts of rugby that are important, but the biggest part is rocking up on the weekend, having that attitude, knowing your rugby detail and having a bit of ticker around the field.”
Edinburgh will be the beneficiaries of that “ticker” now. Richard Cockerill took Haining north from Bristol this summer and has challenged him to deliver all of his ballast and belligerence as the coach tries to add extra gears to an evolving side that last term struggled to seize its opportunities.
? | @BristolBears back-row Nick Haining joins Edinburgh on a two-year deal in first signing of #MagicMonday??
Read the full story: https://t.co/nI6q27vULt pic.twitter.com/PN1w3qPym3
— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) March 25, 2019
Here, Haining faces colossal competition. Scotland internationals Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, John Barclay, Fijian titan Bill Mata, fellow new men Murray Douglas and Mesulame Kunavula and the emerging Luke Crosbie, Lewis Carmichael and Ally Miller are all competing for that six to eight back row space. What sets him apart? Why should he get the jersey?
“I’ve always prided myself in being elusive around the field. In all my contacts, defence and attack, I feel I’m quite powerful. That element of my game is partly why Richard brought me into the squad. That’s always a point of difference. It’s going to be really competitive and all these guys bring huge stuff to the table. That might set me apart but I’ve got to show it on the rugby field first.”
Cockerill signed him for his attributes, not his heritage, but there’s a sub-plot to Haining’s tale. His 81-year-old grandmother Norma is fiercely Scottish. She emigrated to Australia many decades ago but still speaks with a Dundonian rasp and is still “as sharp as saw”. Thanks to Norma’s roots, the carrot of the Test game dangles before her grandson.
“The main goal is to play international rugby. You’ve got competition, but there are only two teams here, so you have got a lot more chance to make it. It’s going to require a lot of hard work and dedication. Ultimately that’s the goal, but Edinburgh comes first.”
Haining is new here. He probably won’t appreciate the thermonuclear reaction quotes like these, from a man who has been in Scotland precisely three months, can prompt. He knows there will be howls of derision, but he doesn’t see why he should conceal a burning ambition for fear of being ridiculed or labelled a rugby mercenary.
He is quite right to see opportunity in Scotland – over half of the match-day squad dynamited so hopelessly by Ireland learned the game in another country. “As a professional rugby player, if you’re not targeting international rugby you’re probably just content. There’s nothing wrong with that but international rugby was always a dream of mine.
? "We were at times a work in progress last year, but I think we go into this season in really good shape and full of belief." pic.twitter.com/pxEm73dfd6
— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) September 25, 2019
“I understand the criticism. There is a very proud patriotism here. I can see everyone is very passionate about their country. But there’s a bit of a different story when that person is scoring the match-winning try in an international.
“If I’m working hard and doing the right things for Edinburgh – it’s a huge if, a massive if – and I’m good enough to get that opportunity, then that’s just world rugby now. I’d wear that badge and that jersey with as much passion as anyone else – I would. I’d be giving just as much to that team as any other Scotland player.”
Scotland don’t have many loose forwards with Haining’s heft and dynamism on the carry. It will take a Herculean effort, especially at 29, to convince Gregor Townsend he is worth a shot, but all that can wait. First, to Edinburgh, and the next stage of a great adventure which begins at home to Zebre in the Guinness PRO14 on Saturday.
WATCH: Scottish legend Gavin Hastings recalls the 1991 World Cup in the latest episode of the RugbyPass series, Rugby World Cup memories
Comments on RugbyPass
I don't think his remotely comparable to Larkham Larkham wasn't good, he was Great
1 Go to commentsWould be great to have a similar clause for Irish players.
1 Go to commentswhat a waste
5 Go to commentsAhh back when NZ rugby had more 12s than they knew what to do with. Credit to him that he must have been still getting selected up until he left, with that bunch around him, shame that he just missed out. No need to ditch the old fellas yet, look at Irelands example. Reckon theyll still go strong at 35+ too.
3 Go to commentsGood one! I’ll use this for the pod.
6 Go to commentsDecent or descent ?
6 Go to commentsOne was beginning to wonder if he would even rekindle his test career after he declined playing after WR changed their eligibility rules. Despite his late decision he still could have changed Samoa’s fortunes at the WC if he was fit.
2 Go to commentsHe never stops whinging. No wonder he is always chasing the next big dream.
2 Go to commentsI always enjoy a good scrum based article. Thanks, Nick. The Hurricanes are looking more and more the team to beat down here in Australasia. They are a very well balanced team. And though there are far fewer scrums in the game these days, destructive power in that area is a serious weapon, especially an attacking scrum within in the red zone. Aumua looked very good as a young first year player, but then seemed to fade. He sure is back now right in the picture for the AB’s. And I would judge that Taukei’aho is in a bit of a slump currently. Watching him at Suncorp a few weeks ago, I thought he was not as dominant in the game as I would have expected. I am going to raise an issue in that scrum at around the 13 min mark. I see a high level of danger there for the TH lifted off the ground. He is trapped between the opposition LH and his own powerful SR. His neck is being put under potentially dangerous pressure. The LH has, in law , no right to use his superior scrummaging skill….getting his head right in on the breastbone of the TH…..to force him up and off the ground. Had the TH popped out of the scrum, head up and free, there is no danger, that is a clear penalty to the dominant scrum. The law is quite clear on this issue: Law 37 Dangerous play and restricted practices in a scrum. C:Intentionally lifting an opponent off their feet or forcing them upwards out of the scrum. Sanction: Penalty. Few ,if any, referees seem to be aware of this law, and/or the dangers of the situation. Matthew Carly, refereeing Clermont v Munster in 2021, penalised the Munster scrum, when LH Wycherly was lifted very high, and in my view very dangerously, by TH Slimani. Lifting was coached in the late ‘60’s/70’s. Both Lions props, Ray McLouglin, and “Mighty Mouse” McLauchlan, were expert and highly successful at this technique. I have seen a photo, which I can’t find online atm, of MM with a NZ TH(not an AB) on his head, MM standing upright as the scrum disintegrates.
3 Go to commentsHey. Stay home and play for Mooloo.
1 Go to commentsTighthead was always going to be our weakness this year with Ryan going home to Ireland and the Cashed Up Blues taking a third All Black prop from us - nobody else in SR does that. Numia is the exciting one. He used to be a lightweight but he's really improved. Do you have stats on the All Black hookers’ lineouts for the game? I seem to remember a few misses.
3 Go to commentsFergus Burke isn't tier 1 player quality…but guess what, he'll be playing amongst them for Saracens…. all going well and Steve Borthwick is still the head coach, England...Scott Robertson’s hint of amending NZRU’s offshore AB eligibility clause, would mean that players like Josh Moorby who show potential might get a call…
5 Go to commentsThe movement of quality players back to SA is remarkable.
2 Go to commentsInteresting article, Nic. Am enjoying seeing the Rebels doing well, partly just to spite those who are working to wipe them off the face of the Australian rugby planet. But it is also good to see a team with somany good players beginning fire. LSL has benefitted so much from his move up to Northampton for the one year. I wonder why he did not stay on for another year. Does he now looks north and see his teammates of last year now doing so well, and have some regrets.
50 Go to comments“Over 80% of the World Cup squad are over 30” No it isn’t lol
3 Go to commentsTyrel Lomax the best AB prop since Carl Hayman. Absolutely destroyed the Boks in RWC Final and is monstering allcomers in Super this season. Should be a monster battle vs touring Poms, always deliver a power pack.
3 Go to commentsEye gouging seems like such a strong term for what can only be described as a poke in the eye. When I think of eye gouging I think of someone trying to intentionally pop someone’s eyeball out. it’s like calling a high-tackle attempted decapitation.
3 Go to commentsGreat article. No insights to add, just wanted to say that. :)
1 Go to commentsLeinster are going to win the world cup.
13 Go to commentsSuper Rugby desperately needs to lose at least 2, but up to 4 teams. Rebels quietly going bankrupt would have made that a bit easier. Teams like the Rebels and Force serve only to weaken Australian Rugby and Super Rugby more widely. In 13 years in the comp the Rebels are yet to win more games than they lose in a season, have never finished in the top half of the competition, and have come dead last a number of times. The Western Force, barring a brief stint of mediocrity under John Mitchell from 2007-2009 have been even worse. Sadly it’s hard to see a future for Moana Pasifika in Super Rugby. Likewise I think the writing is on the wall for the Highlanders, it’s hard to see how NZ rugby can continue to support 5 SR teams, and population distribution suggests one team in the south island would make the most sense.
50 Go to comments