Wallabies’ hooker defies injury to join ‘Brothers’ in arms for battle against British and Irish Lions
They’ve had vastly different journeys to the gold jersey, but these ‘Brothers in arms’ now have one united goal. How a 10-year bond will help the Wallabies forge through the tough moments against the Lions.
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As the Faessler family gathered for a house party to watch the 2007 World Cup quarter-final between Australia and England, eight-year-old Matt told those around him; “I’m going to play for the Wallabies one day”.
“There was a point where I just said to my parents that I wanted to be a Wallaby, I was obviously a little whippersnapper, mum remembers the conversation pretty distinctly, I can’t personally, but ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to play for them,” Faessler said.
“And that was definitely a driving factor in all my decisions growing up, and what clubs I played at, and how much I trained and was obsessed with the sport.”
One of those clubs was Brothers in Brisbane.
That’s where played alongside two young lads with the same aspiration; Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson.
In a remarkable tale, these three “brothers” and proud Queenslanders will take the field together against the British & Irish Lions at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
They’ve had vastly different journeys to the gold jersey, but now have one united goal to defeat the Lions.
While Wilson and McReight always loomed as likely starters for this opening Test, a hamstring injury Faessler suffered on April 12, that ruled him out for the remainder of the Super Rugby season, makes the hooker’s appearance near miraculous.
“I’ve never seen a bloke rehab the way he rehabbed there for three and a half months,” Wilson said.
“We pretty much didn’t see him for three and a half months. He was just in the gym doing everything he could.
“He’s about to get paid the ultimate reward, which is running out starting against the British & Irish Lions.
“He just needs to go out there and do what he does well, really good set-piece, he’s got a good throw, he loves scrummaging, which is all you want to see from a front-rower.”
For 26-year-old Faessler, not a day passed that he didn’t think about this Lions series.
“When you’re injured, all you can really do is just rehab the best you can and hope that the timelines line up and that your body does the best it can to progress into proper training,” Faessler said.
“And I was really lucky that the physios and S & C (strength and conditioning) that were doing my rehab were super dedicated, invested a hell of a lot of time into it. I definitely wouldn’t be able to play this game without them.
“But there probably wasn’t a day that went by through the rehab where I didn’t think of trying to play this game, how cool it would be to play the game.”
And to do it alongside two of his oldest mates makes the experience that much sweeter.
“I think the first time I played with Wilso was the three GPS teams that you play in for Queensland trials, that’s how it worked when we were at school and Wilso and I played in the same team and then ended up playing in the same Queensland school team one year,” Faessler said.
His connection with McReight, however, goes back even further, with an interesting familial link.
“What’s pretty crazy about the Fraser side of it was my older brother Tom and Fraser’s older brother Stu ended up organically becoming mates just through mutual friends in Brisbane, living in share houses and stuff when they first got out of school,” he said.
“Fraser obviously signed pretty much straight out of 20s into the Reds and debuted quite young.
“Wilso played a fair bit of first grade when he was quite young and then got a Reds contract out of that, played 20s.”
It wasn’t as straightforward for Faessler, who was initially snubbed by the Reds, and credits a stint at Sydney club Randwick as the turning point of his career.
“Before I went down to Sydney, I ummed and aahed whether I should or not, that was probably the last ditch effort to put my hat in the ring for a professional program,” he said.
“I’d obviously done a couple of training trials for the Reds, but never really gotten a decent crack into it.
“Going to Sydney was just the idea of a fresh environment, live by the beach and get a fresh set of eyes on me, and hopefully sort of spark something. And three weeks into moving down, one of the Reds boys broke his arm and I got an injury cover contract for about seven weeks.
“I went up a week or two after that, played every game that year (2022), played for Australia A later that year, and the next year was off to the World Cup.”
The fighting spirit is in the DNA of Faessler, whose grandfather Vince Bermingham was an amateur boxing champion who turned to rugby and played three Tests for the Wallabies, being part of the first Australian team to win the Bledisloe Cup in 1934.
He was recently at home and held up his Wallabies cap beside his granddad’s, who he never had the chance to meet.
Faessler is desperate to be a part of history, just as Bermingham was.
The disappointment of the failed 2023 World Cup campaign can be erased if the Wallabies can knock off the Lions.
Faessler will play a key role in the outcome. His lineout throwing will be targeted by the tourists, who have named three specialist locks in their starting side, with Maro Itoje, Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne at blindside flanker picked to steal possession.
“It is obviously a big task,” Faessler said.
“They’re all world-class international players, with a hell of a lot of games under their belts. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us. But for us, it’s just about focusing on the things that we want to target and focus on during the week, and trying to execute that as best as we can.
“Worrying about what they’re going to do is not really going to help us.”
In the tough moments on the field, Faessler will look across and see his brothers, and prepare to run through the red brick wall for them.
“Those two especially, but also a couple of other boys that I’ve sort of played at the Reds with, I’m very fortunate to be doing what I love for a job, but also to be doing it with some of my best mates too,” Faessler said.
“I’m not sure how the others think about it a bit, but it crosses my mind quite often about not only playing footy as a job’s unreal, but genuinely some of my best mates and probably (future) groomsmen at each other’s weddings are playing pro footy together at Queensland or at the Wallabies. It’s crazy.
“You know that the guy next to you cares about you and cares about the collective.
“And some of those connections don’t have to be 10-year connections like the ones that I have with Fraser and Wilso, but I trust and back everyone in the team to do their job on Saturday night, and you hope that they think the same.”
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Originally published as Wallabies’ hooker defies injury to join ‘Brothers’ in arms for battle against British and Irish Lions
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