LONG READ Alex Masibaka: 'I was on a stag do in Barcelona when Gregor Townsend called'

Alex Masibaka was perched on a rooftop bar in Barcelona, bathing in the Catalonian sun and sipping a cool beer when his phone rang. The barnstorming No 8 was on a stag do for his Angouleme team-mate, Jacob Botica, and big plans were afoot for the next few days. He’d only had time for one cerveza but even with a full day session behind him, the caller ID would have sobered him up pronto: Gregor Townsend.

Born and raised in Western Australia to a Fijian father and Scottish mother, Masibaka was the surprise package in Townsend’s Six Nations squad. Hoisted from the ProD2 to compete with the Test match animals, he’d been released for the final weeks of the championship. Now, as the Super Saturday showdown in Paris loomed, Townsend wanted him back.

“The stag do was a last-second thing for me because Angouleme didn’t have a game and I wasn’t with the Scottish squad,” Masibaka says. “We’d been in Barcelona for two hours when I got the call from Gregor Townsend. Luckily, I’d only had one drink.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 BREAKING: Scotland call up Alex Masibaka to their Six Nations squad

The Australian born 8 plays for Angoulême in French Pro D2.

A very left field call up!
pic.twitter.com/yZoUIHJhrO

— RugbyInsideLine (@RugbyInsideLine) January 27, 2025

“I ran inside, picked up and he said ‘we want you come in for the France game’. Obviously I was going to say yes. I went outside to the boys and felt kinda bad – it was Jacob’s stag do – and when I told them they all started cheering. He said, ‘bro, stuff my stag do, this celebration is for you – this has made my whole weekend’.”

Only Scotland’s real rugby obsessives had heard of Masibaka. Almost nobody outside Townsend’s chief analyst, trustee and genealogy enthusiast Gav Vaughan knew he was Scottish qualified. The ‘Toony Tombola’ doesn’t get much of a whirl these days but this eye-catching selection was a classic Townsend move.

Mind you, Masibaka really ought to be used to bombshell phone calls by now. His agent rang him at the start of the season to let him know Scotland were keeping tabs. “I thought I would have to announce myself I am Scottish,” he says. “I don’t exactly look or have a name that sounds Scottish.”

I called my mum and she was crying and hyperventilating at work. She was screaming ‘what?!’ and yelling at her colleagues, ‘I need to go outside!’

A few months ago, he was sat on his sofa in the south of France catching up with his mother Melanie on Facetime. Melanie was born in Paisley to a Rangers-mad football family. They emigrated to Australia when she was a young child and remain his devoted link to Scotland.

His phone trilled. His agent again. “I think Scotland are going to call you in,” he said.

“I froze,” Masibaka remembers. “All the work I’d been doing was for moments like that. Gregor Townsend called me and I didn’t know what to say to him. I was shocked. I called my mum back and she was crying and hyperventilating at work. That’s what she wanted for me.

“Telling her was one of my proudest moments. We are all proud of my Scottish blood, she was screaming ‘what?!’ and yelling at her colleagues, ‘I need to go outside!’ She is always asking when I am in camp next. She told me I had to tell my grandparents, and they broke down crying they were so proud.”

You could have heard Melanie’s shrieks of excitement all the way from Perth.

Masibaka, known as Zander to his family, is steeped in rugby. Massi, his father, represented Western Australia and his kids were practically raised running around the local clubhouse at Associates RC.

“Family is a big thing for me,” Masibaka says. “I am proud to be Scottish and proud to be Fijian. I always grew up with the idea I could play for Australia, Fiji or Scotland and it was what comes first.

“My old man always said to me, ‘it doesn’t matter who you play for, you represent your blood when you are on the pitch’. To have Scotland as a platform is something I hold close to my heart. I have a lot of family in Scotland who are so happy and always very supportive. It is a huge part of me.”

There’s a steel to Masibaka’s character. A stubborn streak too. It’s been there since his days as a hungry schoolboy with a chip on his shoulder and it’s there, still, in the cussedness of his ball-carrying and the venom of his approach.

The Force told me they weren’t interested in me anymore. I don’t want to plateau here if I’m unwanted.

Rugby is a minnow in the sporting hotbed of WA, where the AFL is king. Masibaka was the only Perth kid chosen in the national school teams. He started alongside Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i when the young Aussies shattered a seven-year hoodoo to win on New Zealand soil.

“Growing up in Perth you are always seen as the younger brother or the little cousin on the other side of Australia. There wasn’t as much opportunity compared to over east but I worked pretty hard and was lucky enough to achieve some things in the state system.

“I was in my shell a bit at the time, I felt like an outsider, but it was a very good learning experience. It was always my dream to pursue rugby as my career but that showed me, this actually can be your life.”

Then, at 20 years-old, a crushing blow. In mid-2022, Masibaka was spat out of the professional system, injured and, apparently, surplus. He’d played two Super Rugby matches for the Western Force, sharing the field with Beauden Barrett, Richie Mo’unga and Will Jordan, but the franchise saw no future for him.

Masibaka refused to see his dreams die. Not when there was a whole rugby-playing world out there to attack. Montpellier, the Top 14 juggernauts, have strong links in Australia and were eager to give him a shot, knowing Masibaka would satisfy French rugby’s all-important ‘JIFF’ criteria within three seasons.

“The Force told me they weren’t interested in me anymore,” he says. “I looked elsewhere for opportunities, spoke with my family and agent and saw rugby in Europe – Top 14 was, for me, the best comp in the world.

“Okay, I’m going to make this move because I don’t want to plateau here if I’m unwanted. I spoke to my agent about opportunities and Montpellier just said, ‘yeah, come over here, you can get your JIFF and work towards playing in the Top 14’.”

On the eve of his 21^st birthday, Masibaka packed up his things and boarded a plane to France.

I’d come over injured and overweight and unhealthy, and had some bad habits. I needed that change.

“I went from living with my family to closing the door in my apartment on my actual birthday and sitting on my bed by myself like, I can’t believe I’m in France right now. It was a weird feeling. No one wants to leave their family behind but I knew I had to make that sacrifice if I wanted to go further. I’m glad I took that step.”

Alex Ruiz, the former Test referee, made Masibaka his first signing when he took charge at Angouleme, ambitious ProD2 challengers who snapped up Jonny May this season. Masibaka made such a firm impression last year that he has returned for a second loan stint. He has seven tries, averages 8m per carry and broken the most tackles of any player in the league. Ruiz admits Masibaka had some flab to torch and some vices to ditch when he rocked up, but leaner and shrewder, his impact has been undeniable.

“The first few months were kind of hard, I’d come over injured and overweight and unhealthy, and had some bad habits,” Masibaka says. “I needed that change. That first season woke me up but it was good, they were very helpful even though they didn’t speak the best English. I didn’t feel pushed aside, they helped me quite a bit. I had French classes for three hours, four times a week.

“I want to improve everywhere but my engine is a big focus for me. The repeated efforts, Top 14 and international is another step up. Hopefully I can show the world I’m an all-round player.”

It was late one January night when Masibaka first checked in at Oriam, Scotland’s sleek training base on the southwest fringes of Edinburgh.

“I remember the night I arrived, the first person I met was Finn Russell. I was kinda starstruck to be honest. I didn’t believe it was real.

“It was really good, the whole team is really welcoming and that’s what I struggled with in the past, trying to find my feet, but all the players and staff were so nice and always had time for me.

“The training, I just loved. I loved that competitiveness, doing stuff to improve. Being in that type of environment is really motivating.”

Townsend and his staff liked what they saw. They know, as Masibaka knows, the ProD2 is not Test rugby, for all its riches and recent influx of glittering names. But they see the ballast and the drive and the potential. Masibaka is 23 years-old and 115kg. His explosive go-forward could offer Scotland a precious commodity they lacked for painful spells of the Six Nations.

Masibaka had already re-signed with Montpellier before the great international jamboree and, JIFF-qualified next season, longs to make himself a regular in the Top 14. There’s also the small matter of a Scottish summer tour of the Pacific Islands where, should the stars align, he could win a cap for his mother’s country against the homeland of his father. He has two half-siblings who still live in Fiji.

“It’s always been my dream to pick up the phone and tell my family I’ll be playing international rugby. That’s my goal, and especially if it was a tour like that.

“The main objective is just to get better and hopefully that will keep me in these types of environments I do want to be there.”

A week on from the rooftop bar and the revelry in Barcelona, Masibaka, named travelling reserve, stood in the seething Stade de France, 80,000 punters swarming around him and the championship at stake. A tantalising glimpse at the world of opportunity that no longer seems quite so distant.

“Crazy, the stuff you see in movies,” he says. “I could feel the ground shaking. I looked around at the crowd and remembered me being younger, everything you dreamed of and worked towards. It is pretty motivating. That’s where I want to be. But that’s where the hard work comes in.”