Rugby World Cup 2015: Nathan Sharpe finishes his beer ... then answers Wallabies SOS

IT’S a line straight from a TV advert. Put down your beer mate, you’ve been called up by the Wallabies.That’s what happened to Nathan Sharpe — sort of ...

The Australian team train at Dulwich College, London, in the lead-up to its 2015 Rugby World Cup pool A fixture against England at Twickenham. Ex-Wallaby Nathan Sharpe made an appearance, standing in for injured lock Will Skelton. Photo credit: Stu Walmsley/ARU Media

IT is a line straight from a TV advert. Put down your beer mate, you’ve been called up by the Wallabies.

That’s what happened to Nathan Sharpe last week — sort of — when the former Test lock was given an SOS to help out at Wallabies training in London at the World Cup.

Sharpe, who retired in 2012 and is in England commentating, was asked by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika to train with the Wallabies on Tuesday and help make up numbers due to an injury to lock Will Skelton.

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With replacement forward Sam Carter en route from France, the 116-Test retired star borrowed some boots and helped train as opposition to the first-choice Wallabies side as they prepared to take on England.

But initially it took some convincing that the call-up was genuine, Sharpe told the Sunday Telegraph yesterday.

“I was having a beer with George Gregan, Jeff Willson, Rod Kafer and a few of the guys and I got this text from Greysie (Wallabies defence coach Nathan Grey) saying “I am with Cheik here, can you come down to training tomorrow?”,” Sharpe said.

Sharpe responded with a four-letter encouragement to go away, thinking it was former teammate Stephen Larkham winding him up.

“I replied: “Bernie give the phone back to Greysie”,” Sharpe said.

“Then the phone rang and it was Cheik, and he said “what are you doing?”. I said: “I’m having a few beers” and he said: “can you stop having a few beers? I need an extra player”.

With World Rugby approval, Sharpe went along the next day and did a morning of “lineouts, mauling stuff and scrummaging.”

“Carts arrived just as the session finished, which was good because it was looking an intense afternoon,” Sharpe said.

“I retired nearly three years ago now, and it was the first time I had pulled a pair of boots on.

“My first line out jump I was jumping like a dolphin, flopping around in the air. But, no, it came back pretty quick.

“I just helped out where I could. It was good. I loved it, it was really good, and it was nice to see how they were going about their work.”

Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2015: Nathan Sharpe finishes his beer ... then answers Wallabies SOS