Wallabies winger eager to ‘return the favour’ after ‘mind-blowing’ Olympic ‘opportunity’

Wallabies speedster Mark Nawaqanitawase is determined to finish his stint as a rugby union player on a high when he lines up for Australia’s sevens team at the Olympic Games in Paris later this week.

Although Australia had a forgetful campaign at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, the 23-year-old was one of their better players at that tournament but shortly after his return from the global showpiece, it was announced that he had signed a deal to join NRL club the Sydney Roosters in 2025.

That meant Nawaqanitawase’s international career in the 15-a-side game was effectively over and he was not included in new Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt‘s squad for their recent mid-year internationals against Wales and Georgia.

However, he was offered a lifeline when he was called up to Australia’s sevens squad for their upcoming Olympics campaign.

No stranger to sevens

Nawaqanitawase is no stranger to the shortened version of the game as he was part of Australia’s sevens team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“It’s been quite a crazy year so it was mind-blowing to think this was an opportunity,” he told reporters. “I got a call to come in and have a run and more and more each day I’m getting better and more comfortable with this.”

Australia sevens head coach John Manenti was always going to include Nawaqanitawase in his squad for the Olympics if he did not get a call-up to play for the Wallabies in their July Tests.

“I’ve had conversations with Mark in the past and he’s open-minded about it, he wants to play footy,” Manenti told Rugby Australia’s website in April.

“From my point of view, I just want to know what his appetite was going forward. Obviously, his priority is Waratahs or Wallabies but if those things didn’t happen then what was his appetite and he said he just wants to play footy.

“It’s one of those things we’ll revisit at some stage. At the moment, he’s got the hold his Tahs spot down and push for a Wallabies job but we’ll continue to talk with him.

“I’ve always been pretty close to him and I’d only want him if he was all in in the sense of I don’t want him to do me a favour, I want him to do it because he wants to come and help the team win a medal.”

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Nawaqanitawase is keen to make full use of the opportunity presented to him and representing Australia at the Olympics will see him realise a dream.

“I’ve always had John’s backing me so I’m glad I can hopefully return the favour and help them out with some performances on the field,” he said.

“It’s very special for myself. I get up watching it no matter what event or sport, it’s pretty crazy to think that I’ll be able to run out there and represent my country.”

Australia finished fourth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and despite missing out on a medal, Nawaqanitawase had a good time during that tournament and is looking forward to the Olympics.

“I really enjoyed that experience,” he said. “It gave me a taste of what was such a big event like the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.

‘Easy option’

“It made it a pretty easy option to want to take part in because it’s one of the pinnacles of all sports so it’s pretty exciting.”

In the build-up to the Olympic Games, Nawaqanitawase spent several weeks with Australia’s sevens team which included some time in Darwin with the squad after some practice matches against Fiji.

“(Darwin) was a good week with the boys. We were able to prep and build some more chemistry, especially for us new boys like Corey and myself,” Nawaqanitawase said.

“(Fiji) was a talented bunch of players to play against but also that first taste of Sevens games in a while, more so it was about getting much fit which I’ll have a couple of weeks to be able to make sure I’m prepared for these games.”

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