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Wallaby who threw his RWC medal off bridge surprised 19 years later
By Ian Cameron
In the aftermath of the Wallabies losing the Rugby World Cup final to England on home soil in 2003, Justin Harrison threw his RWC silver medal off the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
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It was an act of folly that he has regretted ever since, not least because it meant he didn’t have a medal to show his two sons.
19 years later and Stan Sports and Nine’s Wide World of Sports surprised the 6’9 former Wallaby, luring him to an interview at the Cargo Bar overlooking the bridge where the rash decision was made.
What Harrison didn’t know was that RFU president Jeff Blackett, with help from World Rugby and the ARU, was lurking with a silver medal from the event to present to the towering second row, who was caught completely unawares.
Teammate Morgan Turinui teed him up brilliantly, explaining how his medal was in the roof the house, to which Harrison replied: “Do you know where mine is? It’s in there [points towards Sydney Harbour]. In the harbour. I didn’t put it around my neck at the presentation and then went down there and had my Mohamed Ali moment, and threw it into the water.
“I just hoiked it in… it’s a regret of mine”.
It was at that moment that Blackett gatecrashed from stage right and it got emotional pretty quickly.
It was a brilliant, heartwarming bit of television from the Aussie broadcasters.
Monday rugby fan challenge? Watch this video without welling up.
We failed miserably ????
Credit: @wwos pic.twitter.com/YgGYoEcMtE
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 18, 2022
To make matters more emotional for the 49-year-old the producers organised a zoom call with his sons back home in the UK.
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It was all too much for Harrison, one of the rugby’s last generation of enforcers, who was quite understandably left in tears.
Now the CEO of the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA), Harrison won 34 caps for the Wallabies but is now a regular in the commentary box for Sky UK’s rugby coverage.
Great stuff.