Waratahs sensation Max Jorgensen.Credit:Louise Kennerley
In the hours before Max Jorgensen played his first game for the Waratahs, the 18-year-old’s phone buzzed with a message he’d been expecting.
It was from his dad, Peter. And as per their pre-game ritual, the text revolved around a basic theme: whatever happens, back yourself.
“That’s always a good message to receive before the game,” Max Jorgensen said.
The Waratahs were playing their first game of the Super Rugby season, at the new Allianz Stadium against old rivals the Brumbies. The venue buzzed with a crowd of about 25,000 fans. It was a daunting night for anyone to make a debut, let alone a kid five months out of school.
But if ever there was a person who knew how Max felt right then, it was his dad.
Almost 29 years earlier, at the same venue, Peter Jorgensen had been in a similar position, readying to make his debut for the Wallabies as a 19-year-old. Earlier in the year, he’d made his debut for NSW, following a similarly rapid rise from St Joseph’s College.
Max Jorgensen (left) and Peter Jorgensen, who made his debut for NSW aged 19 in 1992.Credit:Waratahs, Fairfax
But that was the past. The butterflies before Max’s debut were a different breed.
“I was extremely nervous. There’s no two ways about it,” Peter Jorgensen said.
“I was far more nervous than Max. But [wife] Jo and I were nervous only for the fact we wanted him to do what we know he can do. I wasn’t nervous that he wasn’t ready, or he wasn’t up to it. I know how good he is. I just wanted him to put his best foot forward.”
By the end of the night, however, all the nerves had died – and a star had been born.
Max Jorgensen at the Waratahs’ headquarters.Credit:Louise Kennerley
Outdoing his old man (whose first-touch try for the Wallabies was called back for a forward pass), Max Jorgensen scored two tries and emerged as the brightest young prospect in Australian rugby.
In 80 minutes, Jorgensen swiftly illustrated why there had been an intense, cross-code bidding war for him a year earlier – involving major NRL names – and launched a career that has, just five weeks later, led the 18-year-old to the Wallabies squad.
“After that first game I knew I belonged there,” Jorgensen said. “It gave me all the confidence in the world, and each game I play just builds more.”
The speed of his rise may have shocked but buzz around Max Jorgensen had been building for years.
With a recognisable surname – Peter went on to switch to the NRL and played for the Roosters and Penrith – and the talent to match, the Jorgensen family stood out playing junior rugby for Balmain, and junior rugby league for Leichhardt.
Peter wasn’t a pushy footy father but backyard games for siblings Jake, Max and Zoe had a few extra layers.
“He was always pretty chilled about it, but obviously it was always a big part of our life,” Max Jorgensen told the Herald.
Max Jorgensen playing for Balmain juniors.
“He was always getting me in the backyard, doing 100 passes a day. Getting my pass stronger. I look back, I am thankful for it. He is a big influence, having had such a big career in footy himself.”
Peter explains: “It wasn’t quite the ‘10,000 hours’ mentality, but along those lines. And it wasn’t a forced thing, they loved to do it and I was keen to get out there and do it with them.
“It was just encouraging them and try and teach them the fundamental skills from the beginning. I was adamant from the start, for example, with both of them that if you have two on one, you pass. You can beat the fullback as a kid, but you won’t always when you get older.”
Max Jorgensen juggled both codes growing up. Even after starting at Joeys, he continued playing league for Balmain. His talent shone in both but he focused on rugby alone after making the first XV in year 10.
Max Jorgensen playing for Joeys.Credit:NSW Rugby
Jorgensen starred for the Waratahs under 18s in consecutive years, and by now the talent scouts were almost outnumbering the parents. By the time Jorgensen was in year 12 – that’s last year – heavy hitters in rugby union and rugby league were clamouring to sign the 17-year-old.
Jorgensen met Roosters coach Trent Robinson and Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould, who both pitched a future in the NRL. But Rugby Australia and the Waratahs also went in hard, unwilling to lose another homegrown star to league. Waratahs coach Darren Coleman and general manager Andrew Blades met several times with the family.
“It wasn’t your usual schoolboy recruitment. Rugby Australia were involved as well. It was a bit of a combined effort,” Coleman said.
The Waratahs pitched a rookie season being mentored by ex-Joeys boy Kurtley Beale, and Robinson and Gould sold the NRL dream. At the same time, Peter Jorgensen sought advice from former Randwick teammates Michael Cheika and Eddie Jones; the latter being on tour in Australia with England at the time.
The future Jones was appreciative Jorgensen withheld the fact Max holds an English passport (he was born when Peter was playing rugby for Northampton).
‘It wasn’t your usual schoolboy recruitment.’
Waratahs coach Darren Coleman
“I really needed it to be his journey. I felt he would be successful in whatever path he chose,” Peter said.
“My guidance was not overly strong. I just presented a balanced view on both, and just let him decide where he wanted to be.”
Max Jorgensen and Peter Jorgensen at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Max said: “It was pretty cool to have clubs wanting to sign me, and meeting people like that [Robinson and Gould]. It was a dream come true I guess, and definitely both games were on the table. I love them both and that’s why it took so long to decide but I woke up one morning and just went, ‘Union is the one’. It was just about the love of the game. I know it was the right decision.”
Soon after Jorgensen signed, he was taken as a development player on Australia A’s tour of Japan (which he left a week early to do his HSC exams). In October, he suited up for NSW A in a friendly against the Brumbies Runners. Jorgensen didn’t look out of place.
When NSW began pre-season in earnest, it became obvious to all that the Waratahs had something special on their hands.
“By about week three we went into some 15-on-15 stuff, and he just started doing some pretty special things,” Coleman said. ”He wasn’t just a runner. He had composure and smarts and mature skills. So we adjusted pretty quick: it was, ‘Maybe this kid won’t be just a traditional school-leaver that we’ll bring along slowly’.”
Word spread all the way to the Wallabies camp on tour overseas. Believe the hype. This kid is the real deal.
Max Jorgensen (left) celebrates with Waratahs teammates after scoring on debut against the Brumbies.Credit:Getty
But with physicality against men an obvious question mark, NSW made Jorgensen live in the gym and eat like a horse over summer. He added six kilograms to his now 89-kilogram frame.
And by the time the Beale plan went awry, and injuries opened other doors, Jorgensen was starting for the Tahs in trial matches, scoring confident tries and, importantly, holding his own in contact.
“I am not the biggest bloke but I just backed myself, I guess. I just chucked my body into contact. After the first couple of weeks, I started to realise I am not out of place,” Jorgensen said.
‘After that first game, I knew I belonged there.’
Max Jorgensen
Jorgensen’s debut against the Brumbies was part fever-dream, part “just another footy game”. His first try came after shrugging off tackles from two of the biggest hitmen in Australian rugby: Rob Valetini and Allan Alaalatoa.
“I realised after I scored who they were, that was pretty cool. It was all a bit of a blur, I just thought, ‘Did that really just happen?’ ”
Max Jorgensen has scored four tries in four games for the Waratahs.Credit:Louise Kennerley
Though punctuated with a shoulder injury, Jorgensen has now played four games for the Waratahs, scored four tries and made at least one major play in each. By week two, Jones had the son of his ex-teammate on a draft Wallabies list, and Coleman’s plans for Jorgensen had evolved from steady acclimatisation to “how do we get the kid more ball?”
“Because he has stepped up to every challenge, now the thing I am talking to him about is trying to become the best player on the field,” Coleman said.
The first two months of Jorgensen’s career have been so extraordinary that when the teenager was named in the Wallabies squad at the weekend, for some it wasn’t even regarded as the most newsworthy pick.
You might imagine such a rocket-fuelled rise would have Jorgensen’s head in the clouds, spinning wildly. A year ago he was at school, lugging a bag of textbooks around.
“I am coping pretty sweet with it. It’s pretty surreal. If you told me a year ago I would be here, in this spot, I wouldn’t have believed it. But it’s cool. It’s exciting,” Jorgensen said.
If you get the impression Max Jorgensen is as chilled as he is talented, you’d be right. Peter Jorgensen says he hasn’t needed to pass on any lessons from his similar teenage path.
“He is such a modest, quiet kid that he just takes it all in his stride,” Peter said.
“He doesn’t need anyone to help keep his feet on the ground. He just naturally does it. He doesn’t get ahead of himself. He really knows what he wants. He believes in himself. Max has just been able to handle it all himself so well, he doesn’t need me a lot.”
Inside a footy club, the radar for the faintest blip of a kid with a big head is extremely sensitive, but despite their prodding, Tahs teammates can’t catch Jorgensen out. He’s unshakably self-confident on the field but quiet, to the point of shy, off it.
“He is just so unflappable,” Coleman said.
Peter Jorgensen watching his son play at Allianz Stadium, and (inset) on debut for the Wallabies against Scotland at the same ground in 1992.Credit:Getty, Rugby Australia
The noise around Jorgensen will only get louder, however, with the Wallabies camp coming up and the 18-year-old inadvertently caught up in the code-war ruckus around Joseph Suaalii’s $1.6 million defection. The Roosters are reportedly aiming to make Jorgensen a “revenge signing” when his contract expires at the end of next year.
Rugby Australia has said it won’t let Jorgensen go and has opened talks to extend his contract. Privately, RA knows it will have to spend big again.
Jorgensen calmly sidesteps the whole thing.
“I am signed for next year so it’s a year and a half away. I am just staying in the present,” he said. “I am not even thinking about that, honestly.”
If the call comes this year, Jorgensen believes he’s ready for Test rugby (a debut in July would make him the third-youngest Wallaby ever), and has his eyes set on a World Cup berth. He went to the 2015 Rugby World Cup with his dad and siblings Jake and Zoe.
“I would back myself and say I think I would be ready for Test rugby,” he said.
All of which is music to his dad’s ears.
“That’s the bit that got me success early, rightly or wrongly: I believed in myself,” Peter Jorgensen said.
“I just reckon it’s critical for young, talented people to believe in themselves. In any field.
“The key for Max is that he always holds on to that confidence, and genuinely believes he can go out there and take on the world.”
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