Ollie Hoskins exclusive: ‘I’m nerding out at my mate’s and the phone rings... I’ve been called up by Australia’

Australia Rugby Training Session
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Will Macpherson26 November 2021

Every day this week, Ollie Hoskins has been “bouncing” into training at London Irish — and not just because the club have lost only one of their last six matches.

Hoskins is coming off the fortnight of his life, which began with a shock phonecall that interrupted a game of Dungeons & Dragons and ended by passing out through utter exhaustion at 8pm.

Between times, he realised a lifelong dream that he felt certain had passed him by, pulling on the green and gold of the Wallabies in front of 82,000 people at Twickenham, a few minutes from his adopted home of Richmond.

Let us start at the start. On November 6, Hoskins came off the bench in Irish’s stunning 14-man recovery to draw against Saracens. The next day, he watched Australia play Scotland, before heading to a mate’s house to “nerd out” on Dungeons & Dragons.

Mid-nerd, his phone rang. As it was an unknown number, Hoskins ignored it. Soon after, he received a message from Petrus du Plessis, his former Irish team-mate, on Instagram, asking him to call. Du Plessis, now the Wallabies scrum coach, informed Hoskins that both Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou, the tightheads, had gone down against Scotland. He told him to be ready, in case a call came.

“I was like, ‘What the hell?’,” he tells Standard Sport. “My hands are shaking, I’m in my mate’s bedroom. Even watching the game when I saw the boys get injured I had no idea I was on their radar, it never crossed my mind.”

The following morning, Hoskins went to Irish training, as normal, and was in the gym when he was told to go to Teddington to link up with the Wallabies. He was handed some kit, underwent some medical checks and joined up with his new team-mates.

Hoskins left Perth aged 23 in 2016 to join Irish. “The plan was to come over here, learn for two years, become a better scrummager and learn a different way of rugby, then try to go back to Australia and play for the Wallabies,” he says.

But life got in the way. He fell in love with Irish, with English rugby, and with a British girl, too. As a result, he had “definitely written off” playing for Australia. He is English qualified and admits that he thought wearing white was more likely than green and gold.

“I told my dad when I was five, watching my brother play, that I wanted to play for the Wallabies,” he says. “I thought that was done, but I was really happy over here, had built a life, with my wife and family here.”

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Suddenly, that had all changed. When Dave Rennie named his team on the Thursday for Saturday’s match at Twickenham, Hoskins was among the replacements.

The Wallabies’ social media team promptly produced a video of him learning the news, tears in his eyes. “Anyone who knows me knows that I wear my heart on my sleeve,” he says.

“I’m not afraid to show emotions, whether I am happy or sad, it’s very obvious how I’m feeling. I didn’t know if I was playing or not. They gave me no heads up going into that meeting. When my name got read out, I tried to compose myself for a second, but it was a bit of an out of body experience and I just couldn’t.

“As I ran out on game day with the fireworks and 82,000 people in the crowd, I looked up into the stands and thought, ‘What is going on?’. Even before the anthems I could feel tears welling up, and then I started singing and… yeah.”

Hoskins’s mother was already in the UK, visiting her unwell mother. But his father, from whom he has been separated by the pandemic, faced a dash from Kuala Lumpur — where he works — to make the game. He arrived at Heathrow at 5am on Saturday and watched proudly from the stands.

That’s something I can tell my kids about.

“Everything just lined up,” he says. “Mum being here, Dad not having to quarantine. It was unreal to have them there. One of the best things was to be able to give my dad a hug after my debut.

“It couldn’t have happened at a better location, 10 minutes from my home, or time. The stars aligned in a strange way.”

The following week, Hoskins travelled with the Wallabies to Cardiff but did not play. He still loved every moment. When he returned to Richmond on Sunday night, he was “emotionally drained” and “got home, saw my wife and then fell asleep about 8pm and was just out like a light”.

He says the whole experience has left him reenergised, and excited for what’s next with Irish.

“All the work I’ve put in over the years, the decision to leave Australia and come here, and everything that comes with that, is all worth it,” says Hoskins, as he turns his focus to tomorrow’s sold-out derby clash with Harlequins at the Stoop.

“I’ve gone through some tough times leaving home and it’s been a steep learning curve on and off the field. I struggled a bit. I’ve come through it better and it’s manifested itself in me becoming an international player.

“That’s something I can tell my kids about. Even if it’s my one and only cap, I’m a Wallaby, with a number and a cap and no one can take that away from me. That’ll hang proudly in my house for the rest of my life.”

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