Angus Blyth was as surprised as anyone by the Wallabies call-up, but the lessons of the past have taught him not to take anything for granted.
In fact, the last time Blyth pulled the gold jersey for the Australian Under-20 team was in 2018, with seven players going on to play, including Mack Hansen, Len Ikitau, Fraser McReight and Jordan Petaia. international rugby.
Young and optimistic, Blyth expected many to embark on bigger and better things.
Some people get opportunities at a young age, others don’t.
Blyth, now 26, has spent half a year in Super Rugby fraught with scars and suspensions, injuries, successes and disappointments, and received a long-awaited welcome surprise late last week when he emerged as one of Joe Schmidt’s men. The largest wallaby bolter.
I’m surprised, honey. But now that the door is open, Blyth knows she can’t just sit back and wait for something to happen.
“It was really nice to be in this environment because I was not expecting it at all when I got the email and the phone call,” Blyth said.
“I was surprised. But I’m not satisfied with just being here. I’m here to play or train as best I can to make the team better.
“You can be surprised and happy for a day, and then you get to work. “We have work to do.”
Schmidt unveiled a very fresh 38-man squad last Friday, but Bliss is no rookie.
Trained by Brad Thorn, one of the great fighters of modern international rugby, Blyth possesses many of the physical attributes that stand out on the Test stage.
But injuries in recent years have slowed his progress and saw the spotlight taken away from him late last season as he reached the point where he would have played 50 Super Rugby games.
Perhaps impressed by his 204cm, 115kg stature, Schmidt gave Blyth the opening he thought he needed.
“I was reflecting yesterday when I heard I was joining the Wallabies national team, and I was thinking about the time I played for the under-20 team at the World Championships in France,” Bliss recalled.
“It was the last game of the tournament and the coach at the time, Jason Gilmour, said before the last game, ‘This could be the last time many of you will play for Australia in the gold jersey.’
“Until recently, I didn’t really think that it might be my last time playing in the gold jersey.”
Whether Blyth will succeed against Wales remains to be seen, with the Reds securing one of five second-best players in Schmidt’s team and one of three uncapped players alongside Super Rugby team-mate Ryan Smith and Force’s Jeremy Williams. do.
But international rugby can be fickle, as his former First XV Southport School team-mate Noah Lolesio can attest.
“He was a bit of a big dog at school. He didn’t really talk to me much.” said Lolesio, who is back with the team for the first time since overseeing the Wallabies’ stunning 39-34 comeback. We won the game against Cardiff.
“We played the first XV for two years? 2015, 16? At the time I was a skinny and fat winger and Blythy was one of the leaders of our first team.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to be together on the same team again.”
Blyth, too, recalls being a gang kid still growing inside him.
“I think we were teenagers who didn’t really know what their bodies were doing. So, I was also pretty skinny and obese, and because I was this tall, it didn’t really fit the body I had when I was young, 16 or 17 years old. “It’s a year old,” he said.
But locks don’t grow overnight, and the fact that six of Wallaby’s best locks were lured from Australia shows what a valuable commodity it is, and how it continues to get better as it develops.
Blyth credited Thorn and fellow Reds second-choice Smith for years of tutoring and development in helping them get to where they are now.
“We had spoken before – a lot of Queenslanders coming out of school – we jumped straight into Super Rugby and he set us on the straight and narrow way of doing things on and off the field,” Blyth said. , he received a congratulatory message from his former mentor upon joining the Wallabies team.
“So he was a huge influence not only on me but on a lot of other people, Smithy.
“He really takes care of us. Obviously, that helps me in that position. So he’s got some really specific coaching, which is really good. He’s tough, he’s a tough guy. So he’s trying to focus on my game.
“At the same time, Les (Keith) and the new coaching staff have been really good and refreshing this year and the boys are happy in that environment.”