New cult hero Brandon Paenga-Amosa’s real Wallabies ‘debut’ revealed
THE first time Brandon Paenga-Amosa lined up with the Wallabies to sing the national anthem, he was too nervous to let out a peep. It was seven years before his passionate Test debut.
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THE first time Brandon Paenga-Amosa lined up with the Wallabies to sing the national anthem, he was too nervous to let out a peep.
Hold on, you’re saying. Anyone who caught the passionate rendition of Advance Australia Fair from the rookie Wallabies hooker on debut at the weekend knows it was not only loud, it was brilliantly proud. Paenga-Amosa’s singing even garnered it’s own headlines.
But it turns out Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium wasn’t the first rodeo for Paenga-Amosa, as far as Test match anthems go.
As a self-described “snot-nosed 15-year-old with long hair”, the now-Wallabies hooker first lined up with the Australian rugby team when he was given the flag-holding duties before a Tri-Nations Test against South Africa at ANZ Stadium in 2011.
As footage of the night shows, Paenga-Amosa stood next to then Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom in a tracksuit; looking barely a kilogram smaller than his current size.
The Southern Districts junior had been given the honour of holding the flag through his role as captain and No.8 of the Sydney Juniors under 16 team.
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“It was pretty cool. I walked out with Rocky Elsom, who was captain that game and I was standing next to him and I was just like ‘wow, this is crazy’,” Paenga-Amosa told NewsCorp.
“I looked up at all the people. I couldn’t even sing the anthem because I was just so starstruck.
“It was surreal. Being a 15 or 16-year-old, standing with the Wallabies and singing the national anthem — or me, not singing — it was pretty overwhelming. It was crazy.”
In front of 53,000 people, the Wallabies went to register a 39-20 win over the Springboks; calming the nerves of Australian rugby fans after Samoa had pulled off a humbling upset over the a second-string Wallabies at the same venue six days earlier.
Standing down the line from a teenage Paenga-Amosa in that Wallabies team were six guys he now calls teammates: Sekope Kepu, Kurtley Beale, David Pocock, Will Genia, Nick Phipps and Rob Simmons.
They belted out the anthem with energy but it’s probably fair to say none did it with the same gusto that Paenga-Amosa used in Brisbane last weekend.
What was going through his mind?
“I just realised that I love Australia so much and I owe everything to Australia,” Paenga-Amosa said.
“So I thought “why not just belt out this anthem?”. I have worked so hard to get here, I love this country, I am so proud of this country and I want to sing it as loud as I can.
“And I wanted to sing it a bit louder than ‘Keps’ (Kepu) because ‘Keps’ has a great voice. I had to get the harmonies going with ‘Keps’.”
As far as stories of the year go, Paenga-Amosa emerged as an early favourite last week when he was picked to make his debut, and due to an injury to Jordan Uelese, in the starting team. He’d only made his Super Rugby debut this year as well, and the 23-year-old revealed he’d been a garbo as he worked his way up the club rugby ranks.
Admitting to being “very nervous” up against the strong Ireland side, Paenga-Amosa struggled to hit jumpers in a rusty line out but otherwise pulled a solid shift in his first Test.
“I loved it. I loved every moment. It was good to get one Test under my belt and there is a lot I can improve in my game,” he said.
“And I just hope I get the opportunity in the next few years to come to get better and better at test rugby, and keep getting to pull on that Wallabies jersey.
“After the kick-off, as soon as I made my first contact, I was thinking “oh man, righto, this is just another game of footy”. Different team, different jersey but it is just another game. I loved it and can’t wait to give it another crack.”
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