Nursing a nasty black eye he struggled to keep open, Richie Asiata could not help but laugh when reflecting on his journey from the brink of Australian rugby exile to shock Wallabies prospect.
Last year he was doubting his ability to break back into the Queensland Reds fold, let alone garner a Test jumper, as a series of injuries curtailed his career and left him sidelined for the entire Super Rugby Pacific campaign.
Richie Asiata has played nine games for the Reds this year, after missing the last Super Rugby Pacific season.Credit: Getty Images
“I did my MCL at the beginning of the year, then came back from it and injured it again. I tried to come back again, then injured it again, so it wasn’t the best feeling,” Asiata said, days out from the Reds’ clash with the Brumbies on Saturday.
“Then I came back and did my back as well, so it wasn’t the best of times. There are low times … you always have doubts, we’re human after all.
“You’ve just got to have close ones with you, and my family really helped me through that.”
At 29, and with fellow hookers Matt Faessler and Josh Nasser becoming prominent members of the Wallabies squad, he needed something to change.
His first elite-level game of 2024 against Wales rejuvenated him – Asiata scored a hat-trick, before embarking to New Zealand to don the Northland colours in the Mitre 10 competition.
Star showings on the Reds’ tours to Tonga, Japan and the United Kingdom followed, and he won the No.2 jumper to launch the 2025 season, before Faessler and Nasser succumbed to hamstring and shoulder injuries, respectively.
Nasser only just returned in last week’s triumph of the Waratahs – the clash where one brutal ruck left Asiata with the shiner he joked has given him the nickname “Pirate of the Caribbean”.
Queensland coach Les Kiss confirmed Faessler would be an outside chance of making his comeback in the finals, with the intent to have him fit for Australia’s marquee series against the British and Irish Lions.
The Anglican Church Grammar team that featured Richie Asiata, Kalyn Ponga, Kaydn Su’A, Brodie Croft, Liam Wright, Mack Mason and Angus Scott-Young, which averaged 51 points a game.
But the lack of troops – Waratahs veteran Dave Porecki only returning from injury last week, with Lachlan Lonergan and Billy Pollard the other fit hookers with Test caps – has Asiata looming as a shock bolter, who sits equal-fourth on the Super Rugby try-scorers tally this year (7).
The Anglican Church Grammar product – who played in a schoolboys side featuring NRL stars Kalyn Ponga and Jaydn Su’A, and future Wallabies captain Liam Wright – admitted his standout performance against Wales had shown him he could thrive on the international stage.
“I always back my ability. I feel like I can play at that level, so whatever comes, comes,” Asiata said.
“You always have to play your top-end game, especially if you have Fez and Nass there. For me, it’s just, keep playing consistent, and when you get your chance just make it last.
“I knew the boys were playing the house down, and I knew I had to try to catch up to them, so I just focused on myself to try to get back out there again.”
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