Tahs hooker Damien Fitzpatrick aims to celebrate 50th cap with quarter-final success
WHILE most would have given up after the horrendous injuries and setbacks Damien Fitzpatrick has suffered in his career, the Waratahs hooker has not only persevered but thrived.
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IT’S taken a long time but Damien Fitzpatrick is finally about to earn his 50th cap for the Waratahs. While most would have given up after the horrendous injuries and setbacks the stocky hooker has suffered, Fitzpatrick has not only persevered but thrived.
At age 29, he is playing some of the best footy of his career and is one of just a handful of players to have started in every game this season.
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“To get 50 games for my state, I only ever as a kid dreamt to play one, so to get 50 is incredible,” he said.
Fitzpatrick made his debut for the Waratahs way in 2009 but was immediately plagued by knee problems, undergoing three operations over the next five seasons.
He left once, spending three years in France, until Michael Cheika called him in 2016 and offered him a second stint with the Waratahs, so he jumped at the chance.
Few people will be under more pressure in Saturday night’s quarter-final than Fitzpatrick. NSW’s reserve hooker is Tolu Latu, who played for the Wallabies in all three Tests against Ireland this year and is pushing hard for a start in the Waratahs, and Fitzpatrick struggled with his lineout throwing in last week’s loss to the Brumbies.
“I take it very personally, I spend an awful lot of time on it. It’s one of my major roles,” Fitzpatrick said. “We hope last week was just a speed bump because that’s one of the parts of our game that’s been functionally really well and we want to get back to that.”
The Waratahs easily beat the Highlanders in the regular season but there was some mitigating circumstances with the New Zealanders forced to play most of the match when wing Tevita Nabura was red-carded.
Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger said his team would not make the same mistake again and were fresh after resting six of their key players in last weekend’s final game against the Rebels.
“All those experiences, when you got through a little bit of hardship, are good for us and the way this team responds is normally in a very positive way,” Mauger said. “We’ve learnt from that and the first thing is to make sure our discipline is really good so we don’t put ourselves in that situation and as you’ve seen, when this team’s under the pump there’s a lot of grit, there’s a lot of heart and there’s a lot of commitment to what we’re about.”
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