Rugby World Cup 2023: Angus Bell quickly becomes of the Wallabies’ best at just 22
Angus Bell is part of a rare club of father/son Wallabies. But even with pedigree behind him and prodigious talent, he had to scrap and fight to make his way to the top.
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As the son of a Wallaby, Australia’s World Cup prop Angus Bell is a rugby outlier.
Despite getting the best genes, his chances of ever playing for Australia were slim from the start because it’s extremely rare for any father and his son to play rugby for Australia.
In over 100 years, less than a dozen Aussie families have managed the feat, with Angus and his father Mark Bell just the 11th pairing.
Mark, a hooker, wore the famous gold jersey just once, against Canada in 1996, becoming Wallaby #729.
Almost a quarter of a century later, Angus followed in his footsteps to become Wallaby #940.
A child prodigy, he represented Australian Schools and the Junior Wallabies before making his Test debut at 20,
Still only just 22, he’s already made 26 Test appearances and is on his way to establishing himself as one of the world’s best looseheads.
Sounds easy? Well, it wasn’t.
He’s had to dig and claw and scratch and fight and overcome a mountain of obstacles for everything he’s achieved so far.
“It’s definitely a challenging journey,” he told this masthead.
“I’ve had to learn from adversity, definitely, but I think the adversity that you face as a rugby player is part of the game.
“It definitely builds character so while it’s been a tough journey I'm better for it now.”
Bell has been one of the Wallabies’ best performers at the World Cup, starting both matches so far and playing with authority rarely seen from a prop his age.
Against Fiji last week, he played 79 minutes, which is almost unheard of from a front rower these days.
What makes that even more remarkable is that not that long ago, he was rated no hope of making the World Cup after being hampered by a serious foot injury for the past two seasons.
He missed last year’s tour of Europe then ruptured the ligaments in his big toe again at the start of 2023, sidelining him for more than four months after he underwent surgery.
“There’s always massive challenges in a person’s rugby career, but it’s how you overcome them,” Bell said.
“If you stay persistent, eventually you get that result that you're always looking for.”
If anything, that’s the greatest gift Bell inherited from his father.
Instead of getting tips about the dark arts of scrummaging, the best advice Bell got was just to work hard because nothing is ever a given in footy,
It’s the same message Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has repeatedly told Bell, who is thriving under his tutelage.
“He's an awesome coach who obviously wants to get the best out of his players and fulfil their potential as individuals,” Bell said.
“He just always goes on about how you don't want to look back on your rugby career in ten years time and think you had more in you.”
Wallabies assistant coach Dan Palmer, a lineout guru who played one Test for the Wallabies in 2012, said Bell’s greatest asset was his willingness to keep getting better.
“He’s a young front runner so he’s going to be learning for the rest of his career but I think what everybody is seeing is that he’s a really powerful force in this team,” Palmer said.
“He's got a lot to his game. He scrummages well, he carries, he gets around the field and he’s a big body, so he’s obviously got a lot to offer, but he’s also young.
“We really like what we're seeing from him, he’s obviously got a lot to offer. And it’s exciting to see where someone like that could go.”
The first in his family to play at the World Cup, Bell has emerged as one of Australia's key players in this weekend’s must-win clash against Wales.
The Welsh have a very good forward pack who will target the Australians both in the set pieces and at the breakdown.
For the Wallabies to win, they will need Bell to hold his own and more in the engine room.
“I just feel like I have a hunger to win,” Bell said. “All the young blokes in the squad right now all have a hunger to be better and to win and be a successful team.
“We‘re working towards that and just very excited to move forward on our path.”
Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2023: Angus Bell quickly becomes of the Wallabies’ best at just 22
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