Parramatta’s Tepai Moeroa dual love for rugby league and union will define his future

TEPAI Moeroa chose loyalty over a ticket with the Australian Sevens team to Rio. And when his Eels contract ends in 2017, loyalty will again define his path.

Parramatta training for SUnday Tele

TEPAI Moeroa could’ve been eating yoghurt cups and sipping on cold-pressed juice at Bondi Icebergs last Wednesday.

Smiling beside the ocean pool for cameras in a peppermint striped blazer and pressed white shorts, Moeroa could’ve easily been standing alongside other members of the Rugby Union Sevens Rio Olympic team, including Ed Jenkins.

Instead, the gifted 20-year-old was sweating through a training session 30km west with the Eels. Moeroa chose loyalty over a ticket with the Australian Sevens team to Rio.

And this time next year, off-contract with Parramatta at the end of 2017, loyalty will once again define his path.

Raised in Western Sydney, Moeroa was born in the Cook Islands before moving to Australia when he was five.

As a junior, he played in the district of Sunday’s opponents, Penrith, with the St Clair Comets and the Seven Hills Kangaroos, before joining Parramatta’s Harold Matthews squad in 2010.

“Then one day I was playing in a rugby union tournament in Orange with the Parramatta Two Blues,’’ Moeroa said.

“One of the teachers from Newington College was there and he approached me and said ‘how would you like to come to our school for a trial?

“At first I wasn’t interested. Because I grew up out west, moving to a GPS school was seen as pretty weird.

“But my mum told me to have a crack, you don’t want to die wondering she said. So I went there and it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made.’’

Even now, YouTube vision of Moeroa playing for Newington is compelling viewing. It shows how Moeroa didn’t die wondering. With his hair cropped short, the then-teenager played centre and was almost unstoppable.

As dominant as he was with a Gilbert in hand, he also displayed an appealing unselfishness, offloading at will to drop his teammates over the tryline.

During his deadly defensive effort for the Australian Schoolboys against New Zealand in 2013 — alongside Rio squad member Henry Hutchinson — commentators nicknamed him the ‘sledgehammer.’

That same year, still in Year-12, he was named in the men’s Australian Sevens team while also playing in the under-20s competition for Parramatta.

“But GPS schools, they’re against letting their students play rugby league on a Saturday. You only play school sports,’’ Moeroa said.

“Parramatta understood that and they allowed me to play six NYC (National Youth Competition) games and then I left the whole season behind to play school rugby.

“That was Parra’s call for me to do that. They said ‘you go take care of your school commitments and after that it’s all about rugby league.

“It was tempting to make the switch to rugby, I was playing schoolboys and I was enjoying my rugby so much.

“Having these offers come I nearly made the decision to leave, but when it came time to choose between the two, it was only right that I stayed loyal and went back to Parramatta.’’

Moeroa, aged 15, has history in both codes.

However, it didn’t stop rugby scouts following Moeroa’s every move.

On the week of his NRL debut with the Eels in round-18 against the New Zealand Warriors in 2014, a piece of paper was slipped under the door of what the sender believed was his room inside an Auckland hotel.

It was an expression of interest from Super Rugby franchise, the Waikato Chiefs.

“But they sent it to the room with the under 20s boys in it. Little did they know, I was debuting (in first grade),’’ Moeroa said.

“So some of the boys got the letter instead and they were laughing, when they told me. I had just re-signed that week so it was already too late. There was nothing I could do, I had already signed.’’

Moeroa says his only priority right now are the Eels, improving his game under coach Brad Arthur and making the most of a Parramatta side brought together to deliver success. But having not yet even celebrated his 21st, Moeroa knows his best football is still to be played and understandably, isn’t willing to close the door on the other code or a ticket to the world.

“I’m lucky, I love both. I can’t split the two (codes),’’ Moeroa said.

“Right now, I’m still contracted until the end of 2017 next year, so until then I’ll just keep it to rugby league.

“It’s all about improving for me and when the time comes we’ll look at where my goals are at, what I would like to do with rugby league and of course, I’d love to stay at Parramatta.’’

Moeroa has been tipped for a bright rep future.

CITY THEN STATE: HONOURS AWAIT

TEPAI Moeroa has been earmarked as a future NSW State of Origin star and will be one of the first players chosen for City in their annual Origin stoush with Country next month.

Highlighting the potential for Moeroa to enjoy a bright future in the NRL, The Sunday Telegraph has learned NSW Origin coach Laurie Daley has identified Moeroa as a key member of his crop of next-generation Blues and that his representative career will begin with the City Origin team.

While a State of Origin debut this year is considered unlikely for the raw-boned 20-year-old, former Parramatta legend and NSW halfback Peter Sterling believes a City Origin debut is the ideal next-step.

“I think he’s a future Origin player no doubt, I just don’t want to see him rushed,’’ Sterling said. “He’s certainly a City player, but Origin is a bit further down the track.

“He’s still a kid really, he hasn’t played much first grade and a lot of the first grade he’s played has been under duress with that shoulder injury last year. But I’ve been really impressed with him this year. His awareness, especially defensively is much better and his work rate is much better.

“He’s got two perfect mentors in the coach (Brad Arthur) and also Beau Scott, who I think has been phenomenal.’’

Originally published as Parramatta’s Tepai Moeroa dual love for rugby league and union will define his future