‘Hungry to compete’: The injury that nearly ended Maori All Black’s career
For all the satisfaction, thrills and sense of accomplishment that professional sport can offer, there’s another side to that very same coin. As much as athletes love to chase their goals and hone their craft, the gruelling pursuit of excellence can take a toll on an athlete’s body.
Former Maori All Blacks lock Tom Franklin has made the most of his rugby career. The New Zealander won a Super Rugby title with the Highlanders in 2015, was twice called into All Blacks camps, won a provincial title with Taranaki and has seen the world.
But amongst all the highs, the lows were tough. After leaving New Zealand’s shores in 2019 to pursue an opportunity with Kobe Steelers in Japan, Franklin picked up an injury.
Franklin, who played multiple matches for the Maori All Blacks, was plagued by a degenerative disc in his back which led the towering second-rower to take a year off from the sport. It was amongst all that pain and hurt that Franklin thought about walking away into retirement.
“Pretty serious for sure. I didn’t think I’d be able to play again,” Franklin told RugbyPass when asked about the thoughts of retiring.
“Every day I couldn’t sleep at night and walking around I couldn’t stand up straight… this is no good. You learn a lot about your body.
“I was looking for solutions and talking to people, working with people and trying different options, and found out how to take care of my body better and do what I need to do to get it into a good place.
“I’m stoked to be able to get back to playing. I’m grateful.”
Franklin was down but not out. The lock was “still hungry to compete” at the professional level and ended up returning to the sport – and he’s still playing to this day.
📣 New Signing Announcement! 📣
We’re thrilled to welcome former All Blacks lock, Tom Franklin to the 2024 Western Force Squad!
Read more below 👇https://t.co/EDslTuaajn
— Western Force (@westernforce) January 11, 2024
Another opportunity in the United States of America saw the Kiwi run out for San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby before returning to New Zealand with Taranaki.
But Franklin will wear new colours once again in 2024 after signing for the Perth-based Force on Australia’s west coast.
So, after fending off retirement some years ago, another chance to see the world through rugby presented itself and Franklin couldn’t say no.
“There were options. A few other things popped up,” Franklin said.
“I’ve always been one for rugby to take me around the world and give me so much opportunity to live in new places and meet new people and just experience different parts of life.
“I’ve sort of always embraced that side of it and loved it, so the opportunity to come to Perth, never lived in Australia, never spent too much time on the west coast.
“It’s a new opportunity and it’s something I’ll look back on in life and be like, ‘Man, I was fortunate to be able to come over and do that.’
“That was the turning point, and obviously being in a team which is young and has a lot of flair and big aspirations was cool as well.
“I love the underdog story of getting up on the big teams and punching above our weight so I’m sure we’re gonna surprise a lot of teams this year.”
Of the four teams that didn’t make the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs last season, two of them were Australian. Joining the Melbourne Rebels in the bottom four were the Western Force.
But who doesn’t love an underdog?
Franklin is supremely confident that this year can be different story for the Force. Wallabies Ben Donaldson and Nic White are among the new recruits, as is an ex-Crusaders Super Rugby winner Ben Funnell.
With a wealth of promising young talent in the squad, too, the Force are “hungry” to surprise a few teams during the upcoming campaign.
“We know we can compete with anyone. We’ve been working hard and we know if we put our right foot forward, we can compete with anyone.
“No desire to back down to anyone, we’re gonna come full throttle.
“The boys are ready to rip in. It’s been a long pre-season…. they’re hungry and the boys are ready to go.”
The Western Force will get their 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season underway on Friday night when they host the Hurricanes at Perth’s HBF Park.
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments