LONG READ ‘I tried to really line him up’: Swain holds sway as Brumbies 'brother' Ikitau feels full Force

To say ACT Brumbies centre Len Ikitau and Western Force lock Darcy Swain are as close as brothers is to genuinely undersell their childhood bond.

The two schoolboy rugby sensations both made the trek from Brisbane Boys College down to Canberra – Swain first in 2016, Ikitau a year later – to link up with ACT Rugby powerhouse club Tuggeranong and begin their dreams of professional rugby in the famed Brumbies academy and pathway system.

From the moment they first played together, their rugby journey was shared: get into a professional program, play Super Rugby, play for the Wallabies, see the world. Everything in sync, everything possible, and most importantly, everything possible together.

Last Saturday night, Ikitau and Swain did something that was never part of those schoolboy plans, not something they had ever considered making their way in the game. They had to play against each other.

For the first time in their lives, they ran out onto a rugby pitch from different changing rooms, wearing different colours.

The record will show that Swain’s Western Force prevailed over Ikitau’s ACT Brumbies 45-42, six tries apiece.

And the minutiae behind the record will go to all kinds of depths: the first time the Force had won at Canberra Stadium since 2011, breaking a losing streak that ran to 11 straight games. It was also the first time in 16 starts the Force had won away from Perth. To say it was a massive win for the Western Force is a similarly large understatement.

Indeed, after two rounds, the Super Rugby Pacific table shows that the Chiefs and Force are the only sides in the competition with two wins, making one other undeniable point: right now, the Western Force are the best team in Australia.

The day before the match saw the Brumbies and Force jump at an obvious joint media opportunity. Though the Force had been in the nation’s capital two weeks earlier, with Swain even playing in the 45-12 trial loss to the Brumbies at Marist College, Saturday’s Round Two SRP clash would be their first official face-off, after Ikitau watched that trial game from the stands with his family.

With the cameras rolling, Swain and Ikitau proceeded to give the kind of press conference performance media managers dream of.

There were laughs, there were equal servings of awkwardness and banter, there was very clear honesty about a clearly emotional scenario for both of them, and a few thinly veiled threats were thrown in for good measure.

Swain led off: “Yeah, it is weird. We came back for the trial, so it’s sort of second time around. It’s just another game, but Len’s not my mate.”

Cue awkward laughter from both men. “I’ll try and come for him. I know he’s going to try and come for me too, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Len was about like a foot taller than everyone, and just bouncing everyone. These poor little kids were getting smashed, he was just smashing kids.

Ikitau returned serve: “If he’s in my channel, then I’ll have to tackle him, but I’ll try my best to stay away. I’ll just play on the edges. Darcy shouldn’t be on the edges, so I should be alright.” More awkward chuckling.

Ikitau and Swain opened up about how their bond began and the rough timeframe of when they started playing together.

“We were like these Year 9s, Year 10s, and Len was about like a foot taller than everyone, and just bouncing everyone,” Swain dead-panned. “These poor little kids were getting smashed, he was just smashing kids.” Ikitau could only grin.

“A year later, he was in the first XV. He was always going to be a beast,” Swain said.

Swain was a year ahead of Ikitau, but then did his final Year 12 over two years before heading to Canberra to chase his rugby dream. Ikitau then followed his mate’s route exactly.

“I wanted to be like Darcy. So I did the same thing,” he laughed. “I think we just did everything a year later, so I came down a year later. I got signed by the Brumbies a year later, and then we all kind of came through the same pathway. Me and Darcy, Darcy and Len.”

“We sort of staggered our way through school, but we were always together,” Swain added.

Midway through Swain’s final year of school, he was contacted by Tim Sampson, the former Force head coach and ex-Melbourne Rebels assistant coach who now has the same role with Fijian Drua. Sampson, then director of rugby at Tuggeranong Vikings, offered him the chance to begin his rugby journey with the Canberra club in the state’s Premier Grade competition.

Swain jumped at the chance to join the Brumbies Academy system and play for the Brumbies Under-20s side, and immediately started working on Ikitau, and on Sampson as well, to get his mate down to Canberra.

“I always told him, just come down here, mate. Obviously, you’ll learn heaps off Tevita (Kuridrani, former Brumbies and Wallabies outside centre), other older guys here, and then there’s a massive shot for us. I’m glad it’s all worked out the way it has. It’s been unreal.”

Sampson did call Ikitau. The young centre arrived a year later, and their bond carried on where it left off.

Club football for Tuggeranong together, Brumbies Under-20s together, National Rugby Championship for the Canberra Vikings together, and then their Super Rugby debuts a year apart, in 2018 and 2019.

I tried to talk him out of it. I was supporting him, but really, I was hoping that he would pull the offer. Now I’m happy for him.

Their Wallabies debuts nearly came in the same game, though. Both were named on the bench by Dave Rennie for the first Test against France in July 2021, but Ikitau went unused in Brisbane before making his Test bow a week later in Melbourne.

Team-mates at every level, they shared the ups and downs of winning and losing, oscillating form and injuries, of losing finals and winning titles, together. Even as they found partners and had kids, the bond never wavered.

Until Swain realised he need to take up an offer from the Western Force to continue progressing his career, with competition for places in the Brumbies second row threatening to leave him behind.

“I tried to talk him out of it,” Ikitau said of the Force’s approach. “I was supporting him, but really, I was hoping that he would pull the offer. Now I’m happy for him.

“His family’s happy. They get to go to the beach every day and sit in the sun. He’s enjoying his time there, and I’m just happy for him at the moment.”

But when he made his decision and the time came to tell Ikitau, Swain found it hard.

“When I told Len that I was going, it was happy for me, but at the same time, it was really sad,” Swain said.

When the pair did a joint media conference together last May, Ikitau’s emotions got the better of him when he spoke about his mate’s decision to head to Perth.

“He told me to cry in that interview,” Ikitau quipped. Swain also laughs at the memory. “He did that interview, and I saw him walk straight up the stairs and didn’t even talk to me. I thought, ‘what’s going on?’”

There were no tears on Friday in a sunny Canberra, only happy memories, promises to remember lineout calls, and some very obvious nerves ahead of a game that had been coming unavoidably for Ikitau and Swain since the 2025 fixtures were released.

In the event the Force pulled off one of the great performances in their 20-year history. They shell-shocked the Brumbies to lead 21-0 after 19 minutes, and then even when the hosts did come back and the Force found themselves in yellow-card trouble in the second half, they found a grit and determination not often associated with Western Force teams.

We wanted to come out and throw the first punch, and not get punched in the face ourselves

At 42-38 down with only 13 players on the field, and less than 10 minutes on the clock, the Force won a scrum against the feed on their own line, worked their way upfield to score and retake the lead, and then stubbornly held possession for two-and-a-half minutes to close out the game and remove numerous statistical monkeys from their backs.

“We lost the physical battle and they started fast and we just couldn’t catch them,” an evidently annoyed Ikitau said post-match. “Credit to them, they were good and we’ll just go back and regroup and then go to New Zealand (to face the Chiefs and Blues).”

Swain could barely hide his diametrically opposed emotions, especially with Ikitau standing right next to him as we spoke on the field soon after full time.

“I think we came out with a lot of belief, you know, we started poorly last week against Moana, and we wanted to come out tonight and throw the first punch, and not get punched in the face ourselves,” he said, through a poorly contained, but well-earned smile.

“We did that and then credit to the Brumbies for coming back. They were always going to come back, but we just stuck in there and showed a lot of grit.”

And they did have a little coming-together during the match, too. Around 25 minutes in, Ikitau picked up quick ball at the back of a Brumbies ruck approaching the Force 22, jinked down the short side and was taken down low by Harry Potter, who turned Ikitau in the tackle.

I tried to really line him up, but he was doing the jiffy-jiffy left foot and I knew he was coming back, so I just tried to just hit and hold on

Coming from the open side, and now faced with his best mate’s back, Swain didn’t miss the opportunity to finish off the tackle.

“I tried to really line him up, but he was doing the jiffy-jiffy left foot and I knew he was coming back, so I just tried to just hit and hold on,” Swain grinned. It all happened immediately in front of my sideline radio commentary position, and there was a definite look between the two of them as they got back into position. And almost certainly a little something extra in the ruck wrestle on the ground, too.

Both said they would look forward to the return meeting, when the Brumbies head to Perth to face the Force in May, almost exactly a year on from Swain making departure announcement.

It’s also clear there will now be a new edge to their still daily communications.

“I’ve got bragging rights for months, winning in Canberra,” Swain beamed, as Ikitau could only look on in acknowledgement. “Len, ready to come back to Perth?”

“Oh yeah, I’ll be waiting for that.”