Angus Blyth was as surprised as anyone by his Wallabies call-up, but the lessons of the past have taught him not to take anything for granted.
Indeed, it was back in 2018 that Blyth pulled on the gold jersey for the last time in a stacked Australian under-20s side, which has seen seven players, including Mack Hansen, Len Ikitau, Fraser McReight and Jordan Petaia, go on to play international rugby.
Young and bullish, Blyth like many expected to go kick on to bigger and better things.
While some got their opportunities at a younger age, others didn’t.
Angus Blyth has been called into the Wallabies for the first time. (Photo credit: Julius Dimataga/Wallabies Media)
Now aged 26, with the scars and suspensions, injuries, successes and disappointments to go with spending half-a-decade in Super Rugby, Blyth received the welcome surprise he’d long hoped for late last week when he emerged as one of Joe Schmidt’s biggest Wallabies bolters.
Surprised, you betcha. But now that the door has opened, Blyth knows he can’t sit back and wait for anything to happen.
“Getting that email, call-up, I was never expecting it, so it’s been great to be in this environment,” Blyth said.
“It was a surprise, but I’m not happy just to be here. I’m here to train as hard as I can to play or to make the team better.
“You can be surprised and happy for a day and then you’re off to work. We’ve got a job to do.”
Angus Blyth competes with Blues forward Akira Ioane in 2022. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Although Schmidt unveiled an extremely fresh 38-man squad last Friday, Blyth is no rookie.
Schooled by Brad Thorn, one of the great warriors of modern day international rugby, Blyth has many of the physical traits to cut it on the Test stage.
But injuries in recent years perhaps slowed his progression and saw the spotlight turn away from him just as he was reaching the point of playing 50 Super Rugby matches late last season.
Perhaps impressed by his 204cm, 115kg stature, Schmidt has given Blyth the opening needed just as he thought it was slipping by.
“I was reflecting the other day after being told I was coming into the Wallabies squad, and I was thinking back to when I played in the under-20s in the World Championships in France,” Blyth recalled.
“It was the last game of the tournament, and the coach at the time, Jason Gilmore, said before our last game, ‘This might be the last time for a lot of you guys to represent Australia and play in the gold jersey.’
“I didn’t really think about it much until recently, that that might have been the last time playing in the gold jersey.”
Whether or not Blyth gets a crack against Wales remains to be seen, with the Reds lock one of five second-rowers in Schmidt’s squad and one of three uncapped players alongside Super Rugby teammate Ryan Smith and the Force’s Jeremy Williams.
But as his former First XV Southport School teammate Noah Lolesio will attest, international rugby can be a fickle thing.
“He was a bit of a big dog at school, he didn’t really talk to me as much,” quipped Lolesio, who is back in the squad for the first time since overseeing the Wallabies’ stunning 39-34 come-from-behind win in Cardiff.
“We played first XV, two years? 2015, 16? I was a skinny, fat winger back then, and Blythy was one of the leaders in our first team.
“It’s pretty cool that we get this opportunity to be together again in the same squad.”
Blyth, too, recalls being a gangly kid still growing into his body.
“I think we were in those teenager years where you’re not really sure what your body’s doing, so I was quite skinny fat too, and being this tall, I didn’t really fit into my body as a young 16, 17-year-old,” he said.
But locks don’t grow overnight and the fact that half-a-dozen of the Wallabies’ best locks have been lured away from Australia goes to show how precious a commodity they are and how they keep getting better as they develop.
Angus Blyth says Brad Thorn helped set the foundations for the emerging Queensland Reds players. (Photo by Andy Jackson/Getty Images)
Blyth acknowledged the years of tutoring and development from Thorn to get him to where he and fellow Reds second-rower Smith are today.
“We were speaking before, a lot of us Queensland guys came out of school, we were sort of thrust right into Super Rugby and he sort of set us on a straight and narrow, behaviour-wise on and off the field,” said Blyth, who received messages of congratulations from his former mentor upon making the Wallabies squad.
“So he’s been a great influence, not only to me but to a lot of the other guys, Smithy as well.
“He’s been really looking after us. Obviously, it’s helped me in the same position as him. So he’s got that really specific coaching, which has been great. He’s tough, he’s a hard man, so that’s what he’s trying to focus my game on.
“At the same time, Les [Kiss] and the new coaching staff, they’ve been great this year and refreshing and just boys are happy in that environment as well.”
