Rugby World Cup: Wallaby Scott Sio has a permanent connection to the RWC

RUGBY World Cup debutant Scott Sio’s very name is a hidden code for success at rugby’s showpiece tournament.

Scott Sio with his father David Sio who used to play for Somoa at the Wallabies Captains run at ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park ahead of the Bledisloe Cup between Australia and New Zealand.

IF the Wallabies need reminding what it takes to win a Rugby World Cup, they only need to do a rollcall and wait for “S”.

Scott Sio’s very name is a hidden code for success at rugby’s showpiece tournament.

It marries both the pure belief and hard-nosed pragmatism that a champion team must have if they want to take home the William Webb Ellis trophy.

Confused yet? Stick with us.

Sio, the young Wallabies prop, will make his World Cup debut this week 24 years after his father David played for the giant-killing Manu Samoa team at the 1991 tournament.

The little-known Pacific Islanders defied expectations and caused havoc in the pool stages by beating Wales and scaring the life out of eventual winners Australia. The Wallabies scraped home 9-3 in a soggy clash at Pontypool but Samoa qualified for the playoffs as well.

“It is exciting and nerve-racking at the same time, obviously trying to emulate what your father did, he played such a big role in my life,” Sio said.

“You always want to replicate what your father has done with his life, and especially with him, having played in a big arena — the Olympics of our sport I call it — yeah I would love to keep carrying on the Sio name.”

Australia's prop Scott Sio (2nd L) stretches during a team training session at the University of Bath.

Samoa had a bucketload of self-belief but the fact Sio is not named Manu is evidence that mostly it’s a ruthless edge that gets the job done at a tournament.

Sio was born in Sydney in the week leading up to Samoa’s quarter-final, and it’s now a much-told story about how his parents decided to name him.

“The tale goes if Samoa won I’d be called Manu, and if Scotland won it’d be Scott,” Sio explains. “Scotland ended up winning on the day ... obviously.”

John Jeffrey and Gavin Hastings buried the Samoa surge but Sio has still been searching more for inspiration from the names still feted in the small island nation: men like Peter Fatialofa, Stephen Bachop, Apollo Perelini, Frank Bunce and Brian “the Chiropractor” Lima.

“I didn’t get to meet any of them but I understood the importance they played in my Dad’s rugby career, and in his life in rugby,” Sio said.

“They had something very special back then and it is something we are trying to build here, in a similar vein.

“I have been taking a lot from my dad’s experience back in 1991 World Cup, to see if I can use it.

“My family ask can you win a World Cup? I said yes, straight away and that’s what my Dad was looking for — no hesitation. He wouldn’t want me to go and represent the country and not believe we can win.

“He has been very hard on me from a young age, and still is, and hopefully I can carry all he has given me into this World Cup.”

Sio, 23, debuted for the Wallabies in 2013 but had to overcome a knee injury and six weeks on the sideline this year in Super Rugby to push his World Cup claims.

He made the squad as Michael Cheika shook up the front row stocks by omitting veteran Benn Robinson, and Sio was so powerful in his Rugby Championship opportunities the 116kg Norths product is set to be the Wallabies top-choice no. 1 at the World Cup.

“As a young guy I have had to learn quick to really rise to the occasion. That is what this game is about. To see what we are made of,” he said.

There is one more motivation for Sio to perform well at this World Cup: to finally write a new chapter of family history.

“Dad is getting a bit over all the talk that he’s my father and about things he did,” Sio says.

“He wants a new story to tell.”

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Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Wallaby Scott Sio has a permanent connection to the RWC