Richie Arnold was on cloud nine 12 months ago. He’d just knocked over Will Skelton’s La Rochelle to win the French Top 14 and although his body was aching, the pains of a ten-month domestic season was never going to be enough to stop him from joining Eddie Jones’ Wallabies ahead of the World Cup.
Having watched his twin brother Rory run out for the Wallabies at the 2019 World Cup, Arnold had long craved the opportunity to run out for his nation.
It came in the most unlikely of circumstances, with Jones breaking Rugby Australia policy by plucking Arnold from France despite being uncapped.
Months later, however, his Wallabies dream was crushed as he became part of the first Australian side to fail to progress past the pool stage of the World Cup.
“It was the highlight of my career, but it was also the toughest time,” Arnold tells The Roar.
“The pool [Georgia, Fiji, Wales and Portugal] we had, there’s no way we shouldn’t have advanced past that pool.
“It was a real tough pill for me to swallow.”
Richie Arnold reacts following the Wallabies’ record 40-6 loss to Wales at Parc Olympique on September 24, 2023 in Lyon. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Having been beaten by Fiji for the first time in 69 years at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, the Wallabies slumped to even lower lows a week later, suffering their worst World Cup defeat by Wales 40-6. The loss effectively ended their tournament.
Although the Wallabies beat Portugal in their fourth and final group match, it was far from convincing.
The Wallabies went down to 13 men, were booed relentlessly, and struggled to handle the intense atmosphere as their set-piece crumbled and inexperience showed without two of their best forwards in Skelton and Taniela Tupou, who suffered devastating injuries on the training paddock ahead of their loss to Fiji.
It meant Jones’ area of strength immediately became their Achilles heel.
“That was the tough one for us because we were struggling at the set-piece,” Arnold said. “We lost ‘Nella’ and we lost Will.
“We went from playing France in that World Cup warm-up, where we were dishing them up, to losing them.
“When we lost them, we struggled on that side of things.
“Set-piece wise, you watched Portugal, we were getting dished up by Portugal. They’re a tier-two nation.
“Some of them are working a nine-to-five [work week] and we’re getting d–ked by them.
“All respect to Fiji but the pool we had, we had the easy side of the draw. But, hey, World Cups, anything can happen.”
Portugal feed the scrum close to the Wallabies line at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on October 01, 2023 in Saint-Etienne. (Photo by Julian Finney – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
Making the pain of the World Cup even harder to take was that Arnold knew he didn’t play his best rugby.
Who did, though?
But unlike most from the dreaded campaign, where Jones took the youngest squad to the World Cup and paid the price, Arnold isn’t likely to get another chance to play for the Wallabies again despite another strong season in the world’s toughest league.
“I’d love to, but I’m a bit of a realist,” he says. “You’ve got the new coach coming in and usually after the World Cup, you clear the decks, especially after that poor performance.”
At the time of interviewing Arnold in France, it’s just days since Toulouse won their second European Champions Cup by downing Leinster in extra time at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in front of a packed house.
After days of partying, the celebrations have finally died down.
The fog has cleared.
“Mate, it was wild,” he said.
“Saturday on the plane, got back to Toulouse just after 1.30am, and we went through the night back at the stadium, and then had the family barbecue and then we went into the capital – and it was just packed out in the capital.
“It was a big couple of days, to be fair. It was testing on my wife and the three kids because I wasn’t home.”
For Arnold, the celebrations were as much about relief as anything after being shown a red card deep into the contest for a high shot.
“I thought it was like a bad dream,” he said. “I was on the sideline, I just felt sick in the stomach because we were nine points up at that stage in extra time.”
The 31-22 victory over the Irish heavyweights saw Arnold join Wallaby great Drew Mitchell in winning two European Cups, with Matt Giteau’s three gongs in danger.
Arnold’s name might not be rugby royalty in Australia but in France, he’s been a huge driving force behind Toulouse’s dominance over the past five years since first joining as medical joker during the 2019 World Cup.
He’s played alongside some of the biggest names in rugby including Jerome Kaino and Cheslin Kolbe, and each week calls Antoine Dupont, the French captain and former World Rugby player of the year, a teammate.
“Honestly, I’ve seen this club grow,” Arnold said.
“We’ve had some world class foreign boys come in but credit to the coaches, they’ve kept the core group of French boys together.
“That was the key for this group.
“I remember Roman [Ntamack], [Australian] Zach Holmes was starting over him when I first got here, and he was playing 12, and I see photos back of him and he was such a fresh-faced 19-year-old.
“We talk about building a dynasty here and hopefully we’ll do the double.
“I was lucky enough to do it with Rory in 2021 to win the double. That’s the goal for this group is to do the double again.”
Antoine Dupont of Stade Toulousain lifts the Champions Cup trophy following their extra time win over Leinster at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 25, 2024 in London. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
So what’s it like playing with Dupont?
“Toto’s a good lad,” Arnold says nonchalantly.
“You only had to watch that [European Cup] final, he’s the best player in the world. He’s an absolute freak.
“I think it’s actually good he’s going to the sevens. You see some of the clips he does in the sevens, people forget actually how powerful he is.
“He’s not just a freak athlete but he’s a beast. He smashes blokes and he gets his head on the ball.”
He also gets to lock down the scrum with Emmanuel Meafou, who somehow slipped through the Australian radar before emerging as France’s latest Test lock.
“I’m super happy for him,” Arnold said.
“He’s a good team man. He’s pledged his allegiance to France, but I still see him as an Aussie, as a Samoan.
“He’ll have 300 matches by the time he’s finished at Toulouse.
” I don’t think he’s bitter at all. Maybe he’s probably a bit smug about it. Sitting back here probably saying, ‘This is what you’ve let slip through your fingertips.’
“No one took him … he was at Melbourne, he was at all these teams, but he never really got that opportunity. Credit to Toulouse, they saw his potential.”
Having once again beaten Skelton’s La Rochelle in the semi-final, Arnold will be without Meafou for Saturday’s final against Bordeaux, who have Australians Kane Douglas, Adam Coleman and Pete Samu in their 23, as well as Ben Tapuai in their wider squad, as Toulouse attempts to do the double by winning in Marseilles.
Not bad for someone who didn’t start playing rugby until being convinced to line up for the Murwillumbah Bananas in 2011.
“I’m just a bloke from Murwillumbah, a little small country, bloody sugar cane community just south of the border,” Arnold quipped.
“I bought a place in Tweed Heads there, so when it’s all said and done, I’ll be back there, no doubt, and back to normality and back to the small old town and look back on this journey and think how crazy it was.”
So was leaving Australian rugby the right decision?
“Honestly, hands down,” he said.
“I enjoyed my time in Australia. I didn’t really play too much, one or two seasons at the Force, where I kept breaking down.
“I went to the Brumbies, got to play with the twin brother, which was pretty cool.
“The Brumbies set-up was really good for me. They made me a better player, made me realise what a tight-five [forward] has to do.
“Dan McKellar was good for me, so too ‘Lord’ [Laurie Fisher] and ‘Palms’ [Dan Palmer].”
