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The $40,000 decision that helped turn Rodda into a Wallaby

Izack Rodda poses during the Australian Wallabies headshot session on May 7, 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Izack Rodda will pack down for Australia in second row against the All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup on Saturday – it will be his eighth cap.

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But the Queensland Reds man has given an astonishing insight of the sacrifices made to get him into a Wallabies shirt, penning a moving article for exclusiveinsight.com.

Rodda made his debut last year in Dunedin against the All Blacks, injuries mounted and he was thrust onto the bench by Michael Cheika.

Continue reading below…

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But in order to get him to that point Rodda has given an astonishing account of what it took to get that elite level. His mum drove him to training for both union and league Monday to Thursday, with games taking place on Friday and Saturday.

“Mum was also at uni full-time, studying to become a teacher. She would sit in the car studying while I trained. How she juggled everything I have no idea – mother of two, she worked, studied and ran me around to footy six days a week”, the 119kg lock says.

But the sacrifices didn’t end there.

“For the last two years of my high school I received a scholarship to attend Ipswich Grammar, a prestigious rugby school west of Brisbane. The scholarship certainly helped, but we would have still been out of pocket up to $40,000.

“Now, I am not from a rich family. It wasn’t as though we had that sort of money to spare. But Mum’s attitude was: “Stuff it! We’re doing it. It will be worth it one day.” That’s what she said to me and so off to Ipswich Grammar I went.”

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It certainly paid dividends, Rodda played Australian Schoolboys in 2014 and Australian U20’s in 2016, before claiming senior honours with the Wallabies a year later.

But with finances tight, is family could not afford to get to his debut, but the ARU stepped in and jetted his mum out to Dunedin.

“You can imagine my surprise when I walked through the hotel lobby, about three hours out from the game, and there she was, sitting there, waiting for me. That meant so much to me.”

“A year later it still seems surreal. I am playing the game I love at international level and loving it. It took a lot of miles, but when you have a mum like mine behind the wheel … anything is possible”, the 21-year-old says.

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J
JW 9 hours ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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