Brumbies journeyman Locky McCaffrey on the “bench void”, and how three years in England helped him realise his potential

LOCKY McCaffrey probably isn’t the ideal guy for Australian rugby’s recruitment and retention department. Can’t get a decent run and got an overseas offer? Go, McCaffrey tells them.

Lachlan McCaffrey runs the ball for the Brumbies during round five.

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LOCKY McCaffrey probably isn’t the ideal guy for Australian rugby’s recruitment and retention department. Can’t get a decent run and got an overseas offer? Go, McCaffrey tells them.

“Obviously you have to let that playing for the Wallabies dream go, for a time anyway,” McCaffrey says.

“But at the same stage you can go for two or three years, play good rugby, have a really enriching experience on the other side of the world. And you still come back and give Super another crack. Better yet, you’ll come back a better player.”

In other words, you can be like Locky McCaffrey.

The journeyman Aussie backrower is back at the Brumbies this year after a three-year stint in England, and so far, he’s braining it.

Lachlan McCaffrey runs the ball for the Brumbies during round five.

Such has been McCaffrey’s influence for Dan McKellar’s team, it’s very hard to see him being the Brumbies’ backrower to make way for David Pocock against NSW next weekend.

McCaffrey is only 27 but he’s squeezed plenty of mileage into his career. After debuting for NSW in 2010, McCaffrey played for the Force and the Brumbies before stints with London Welsh, and then the famous Leicester Tigers.

Until he went overseas, however, McCaffrey had found his wheels spinning. He was one of those guys stuck in the bench void; good enough to be picked — as opposed to going back to club rugby — but not to start. You train and train but before you know it, another year has slid by with bugger all game time.

From 2010 to 2014, McCaffrey only played 443 minutes of Super Rugby — just twice for 80 minutes.

“If you’re not the first-tier guys, you can actually play not much footy,” McCaffrey says.

Lachlan McCaffrey during his time with the Leicester Tigers.

“You end up doing a three-month pre-season, and then do season of a single-figure (minute) games off the bench. You just don’t challenge yourself as much, and you don’t grow. With training — no matter what people say about sports science and all that crap — I genuinely think the only way to improve yourself as a player is to play regular games.”

And so McCaffrey got his overseas offer and he went.

He played 30 games for London Welsh in his first season and then 50 games in the following two seasons for the powerhouse Tigers. They made semi-finals in both the English premiership and the Heineken Cup.

With regular game time, McCaffrey flourished. He was a starting forward for the Tigers under coach Aaron Mauger and those who know Welford Road know those stripes are hard won.

“That was my biggest highlight, playing massive games over there,” McCaffrey says.

“We played Dan Carter and Racing Metro at a sold-out Nottingham football Stadium, Munster at Thomond Park. Welford Road sells out every week. I was stoked, I was loving life.”

Lachlan McCaffrey is an advocate of going to play overseas.

With a year left on MCaffrey’s contract, however, former Reds coach Matt O’Connor replaced Mauger and promptly cut him. O’Connor wanted big ball carriers, not footwork-ball playing loosies like McCaffrey.

“It opened up an opportunity at the age of 27 to come back and give Super Rugby another crack. It was all last minute. I was driving from Lagos to Lisbon in Portugal and I was on the phone for a couple of hours,” McCaffrey says.

“I knew Dan (McKellar) from last time I was here, so I got on the phone to Allan (Alaalatoa) and a few guys and had a few conversations with Dan. Although it was a shit circumstance, it was a blessing in disguise. I could come home, spend time with my family and have one more crack in Australia.”

McCaffrey’s value to the Brumbies — even in defeats — has been clear as day. It was noteworthy McKellar made him stand-in captain when Sam Carter and Christian Lealiifano were off against Melbourne.

Surprise, surprise — 80 games in three years made McCaffrey a better player.

Lachlan McCaffrey in action for the Leicester Tigers.

“Most people would return better,” McCaffrey says. “It’s a different style of rugby. You play 40-game seasons, its physical, there’s really smart forward play. I learned a lot there.”

One of the great advantages to being back in Australia, McCaffrey says, is being able to lend support to the men’s health charity of good mate Matt Tripet.

McCaffrey was down in Jindabyne this week as ambassador of the Fly Program, a support network group set up to give men a place to talk. It’s done around fly fishing and camping.

“I did the program and I met some amazing people, guys who’ve just come back from fighting overseas in the war, guys who are paramedics or people having lost loved ones or gone through divorces,” McCaffrey says.

“It’s for guys who feel they’re in a bit of a rut and don’t feel they have a support network of blokes to talk to. We’re not great at talking to each other as blokes. Matt is making a big difference with some guys lives.”

* For more information, go to www.flyprogram.org.au

Originally published as Brumbies journeyman Locky McCaffrey on the “bench void”, and how three years in England helped him realise his potential