Nice article in
The West on Bryce Hegarty this morning.
Could he be a bolter for the Wallabies?
Western Force recruit Bryce Hegarty sets lofty goals of Wallabies debut and World Cup berth
Bryce Hegarty has some lofty goals this season and they all start with a ‘W’.
Wins for the Western Force, a Wallabies call-up and a World Cup berth are all on the utility back’s to do list - and he cannot wait to get to work.
The Force new recruit is an east coast transplant but has been lured to Perth by head coach Simon Cron, who he previously worked with at the Waratahs.
Armed with a decade of experience in Australia, England and Japan, Hegarty said he was excited by the Force’s potential ahead of the Super Rugby season.
“The Western Force are a club that’s growing. I really see a lot in the future here, a lot of good and I’ve got a lot of respect for Cronny,” he said.
“I think things are going to start happening here in WA, so to me, it was a no-brainer; if I wanted to come back and have a shot at playing for Australia at the World Cup, the Western Force was the team I wanted to do it with.”
Comfortable at both fly-half and full-back, Hegarty admitted the looming Rugby World Cup later this year was part of the reason he returned home from Leicester Tigers.
Hegarty said his desire to debut for the Wallabies went hand-in-hand with his goal to propel the Force up the table.
“I’ve got the goal to represent Australia at the World Cup, but first and foremost, that’ll only happen if I’m playing great for the Western Force.
“That’s honestly my biggest goal: to play great each week, train great every day, be excellent in everything I do, just to bring that work ethic to the club and put the Western Force where I think we can be.”
Comfortable at both fly-half and full-back, Hegarty admitted the looming Rugby World Cup later this year was part of the reason he returned home from Leicester Tigers.
The 30 year-old’s career has taken him around the Super Rugby competition - he debuted with the Melbourne Rebels and moved to the Waratahs before joining hometown team Queensland Reds - before he headed to the English giants.
Although injury forced him to watch from the stands as Leicester claimed last year’s championship in front of more than 72,000 fans at Twickenham, Hegarty said he gained a wealth of experience being part of their title-winning team.
“The lure of Leicester and challenging myself in that English competition, which is a fantastic competition, was hard to say no to and I think it’s grown my game a whole lot and I definitely learnt a lot,” he said.
“The different style of rugby and winning has really been ingrained to me and something I’m really appreciative for, the idea is to come back here and keep winning.
“Whilst it was unfortunate that I was injured for the last few weeks of the season, it was still good to see the team and performance of the team can always be matched and that’s something we really want to build here.”