Randwick’s Jayden Kitchener-Waters dreaming of big future in Rugby Sevens
‘I was a bit of a boof head’. How rugby helped steer this young player on a new course - and hopefully to a new career.
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Rugby has already changed Jayden Kitchener-Waters’ life. Now he hopes it will alter his future.
Kitchener-Waters said rugby helped re-route his life as a teenage and put him on a path that has already led to university and he hopes, eventually, an elite playing career.
Hailing from Tamworth, growing up in Coffs Harbour and now living in Sydney, the Randwick rugby player believes his life would be vastly different without the sport he loves.
“I wouldn’t be here, at uni, if it wasn’t for rugby,’’ said Kitchener-Waters, studying social research and policy at UNSW.
“As a kid I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and sometimes things were tough at home. I could get on the rugby pitch with my mates and forget about it all.
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“I was heading for trouble. For sure. I was heading for trouble. Stealing, walking around late at night.
“Rugby put me back on track. At 13 and 14 it showed me a different path, a way to express the real me.
“I feel like myself when I am playing. It is when I am the most competitive and loving and strong.
“When I play, it’s weird, but that is the real me.’’
I try and take that on to the rugby field. Be humble and do stuff for other people
Kitchener-Waters said his mother Colleen and her influence helped him change the direction his life was heading.
“I shoplifted. A bit of chewy, chocolate,’’ he said. “I was walking round late at night. That really worried mum.
“A few times the coppers would pull us over and out of fear we would run.
“I had mates who got into fights and threw rocks at houses. I never did that.
“I never really did drugs or drunk. I look back at it now and I could have potentially got into it.
“But mum, Colleen, she is a strong influence in my life and I changed.
“I was a bit of a boof head.’’
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The goal of Kitchener-Waters, who is playing in a series of tournaments with the First Nation Rugby Sevens squad, is to one day earn a professional contract and play for Australia.
“I love my sevens,’’ he said.
“I would love to play sevens big time. I think about it all the time, playing for the Australian sevens team.’’
Kitchener-Waters, 19, moved to Barker College on an indigenous scholarship in Year 10 and changed his life and his goals.
But he still loves something from his past almost as much as rugby.
“I love my dancing. I do it mainly in Tamworth and I’m with the Gomeroi dance company’’ he said.
“I’ve been dancing since then when it was young.
“Dancing and sport go well together. When we prepare to dance it’s just like when I got out to play rugby. It’s doing something bigger than yourself. It really humbles you.
“It’s important to be humble, loving and respectful.
“I try and take that on to the rugby field. Be humble and do stuff for other people.’’
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