By Dan Walsh and Billie Eder
With a demountable out the back, greyhound track round the side and a couple of plastic chairs, the highest profile Wallaby defector in three decades stepped out in rugby league.
Beneath the same squally Sunday skies at the other end of the city, one of Australia’s most decorated women’s rugby players made her debut in the rival code, too.
Roosters recruit Mark Nawaqanitawase and Cronulla’s Sharni Smale have traded codes, the Olympics and 75,000-strong crowds at the Stade de France for suburban rugby league in all its glory – at least for now.
Nawaqanitawase found himself in red, white and blue for the first time at Glebe’s Wentworth Park, trotting up and down their right wing alongside the greyhound barrier that was letting loose Buck Tooth Rico, Toodles Jack and Flash as Joe 24 hours earlier, with an Allianz-esque puddle at one end of the field to boot.
Plenty of hype and hoopla has followed Nawaqanitawase’s league move before he’s even played a game, with coach Trent Robinson insisting he most likely won’t see NRL action until next season.
Namely, because not since Garrick Morgan, Darren Junee and Peter Jorgensen in the mid-1990s has a genuine Wallaby jumped across to the 13-man game.
Mark Nawaqanitawase in full flight at Wentworth Park.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The 23-year-old does so fresh from Australia’s Sevens campaign at the Paris Olympics, having been axed from the Wallabies set-up by new coach Joe Schmidt in June because he had already signed at Bondi Junction.
With 24 minutes left in the first half of the Roosters’ NSW Cup clash against Canterbury, Nawaqanitawase showed off the skills that had prompted billionaire owner Nick Politis, Robinson and stars Angus Crichton and Sam Walker to roll up at the old Wenty dog track, opposite the old demountable from which Ricky Stuart once coached the Tricolours.
A regathered bomb with a rapid-fire flick pass when nothing was doing carried all the class of Nawaqanitawase’s 11 Tests for the Wallabies.
But it was the carry he took coming off his own line, one play after being buried on top of it after fielding an attacking kick, that would have impressed Robinson most.
It’s a long way from Stade de France: The scene at Wentworth Park for Mark Nawaqanitawase’s Roosters debut.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The flash will come with Nawaqanitawase, and it did when he found open pastures in the second half and loomed in support to score his first try in Roosters colours.
But it was how he handled being smashed that was worth watching, and he was well aware of the eyes on him as Roosters halfback Hugo Savala kicked a match-winning field goal in the last five seconds.
“The first carry was good to get out of the way,” Nawaqanitawase said after full-time, promising to properly celebrate the upset win in Sticky’s old sheds.
“There was a little bit [of nerves]. Always is. I knew with my first game that a lot of people would be wondering how I’m going, and myself as well.
Roosters boss Nick Politis (third from left) and coach Trent Robinson (right) in the stands for Nawaqanitawase’s club debut.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
“It doesn’t matter where I play. I was lucky enough to have my family here, too, so I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to play.”
An hour earlier, down in the Shire, Smale, too, was enjoying all the finer things rugby league has to offer – like a scything southerly whipping through PointsBet Stadium.
Smale has signed with Cronulla’s NRLW side for the rest of their campaign and boasts an even better CV – Order of Australia, gold medal from Rio in 2016 and more than a decade as one of the most revered Wallaroos and women’s Sevens players of all time.
For 50 minutes she warmed the bench against Newcastle, impossible to miss in her trademark rainbow headgear and incandescent yellow boots.
Former Australian Sevens captain Sharni Smale wearing Cronulla colours for the first time.Credit: Sharks Digital
A smash and grab moment was the highlight of her first senior rugby league outing since 2006.
Knights winger Lilly-Anne White was driven back five metres and hammered for her troubles as she suited up alongside old Sevens teammates Emma Tonegato and Tiana Penitani – once Smale’s 17-year-old protégé, now her Cronulla captain.
“Obviously off the back of Paris, not coming away with a medal is pretty tough,” Smale said of Australia’s Sevens tilt.
“I just really thought I needed to be at home... I’d retired from Sevens and [Sharks coach] Tony Herman reached out to my manager and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a few injuries’. I came in for a chat, and seven days later, I’m here debuting at Shark Park ... It’s been a whirlwind journey. I’m pretty blessed.”
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