The 2025 rugby season has been a massive one for the Amosa household - in particular Wallabies hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa and his sister, Wallaroo Katalina Amosa.
Fresh of a Lions tour and now on the ground in Johannesburg to take on world champions South Africa, Paenga-Amosa has worked hard to get back into the Wallabies squad after a promising but injury-affect debut season at the Western Force.
However, the 20-capped Wallaby took time to celebrate his younger sister, who debuted against Fiji earlier this year and has been included in Jo Yapp’s World Cup squad.
“It's been awesome for my sister,” Paenga-Amosa told reporters on Monday in Johannesburg.
“I'm really proud of her. We've had a lot of conversations about the scrum and line-outs and all that stuff.
“I'm excited to watch her ripping at the World Cup. Hopefully, she gets to have some good minutes. The Paenga-Amosa households have been buzzing, I'd say, the last couple of weeks.
“I'm just excited to watch her rip in.”
While Katalina Amosa has her sights set on the Wallaroos’ World Cup opener against Samoa, Brandon will be looking at maintaining his matchday berth position after his last-second inclusion for the Lions’ third Test following injuries to Dave Porecki and Matt Faessler.
However, given the success Paenga-Amosa has had over the course of the Lions tour, it is a challenge the Force hooker is excited to rip into.
“It's kept me on my toes, I'll tell you that,” the 29-year-old hooker laughed.
“It's been exciting, the past month for myself personally. If I do get that opportunity on Saturday afternoon here in Jo'burg to play against the Springboks, it'll be a huge honour for myself to be able to face them and essentially enjoy the moment.
“We're at a better place now than we were 12 months ago.
“Off the back of a really good win against the Lions, we just want to continue to build that momentum.”
The Springboks announced their team line up early, with head coach Rassie Erasmus admitting he is open to changing the line up depending on who the Wallabies select.
For Paenga-Amosa, though, any South African antics are water off a duck's back and expected at this point.
“The truth is you just got to expect everything,” he said.
“That's the honest truth. You can never know what's in Rassie's back pocket.
“But if we just stick to our own process and do what we do best, then it'll go a long way for us.
“I think it's really easy to look at what South Africa have done in the past. Obviously, they're a world-class team. For us, it's just taking them for face value. For us, it's just seeing them, what they do in front of our eyes, in front of us at Ellis Park.
“Obviously, we can put together as many scenarios or plays as we want. But in the end, we're playing them at Ellis Park and that's how we're going to take them, face value. We've built quite nicely over the Lions series and we're looking at continuing that momentum into this game, which is really important for us.
“We respect what they've done. We respect them as a team and them going on and winning more cups. But for us, what we see in front of our faces in Ellis Park is how we're going to see them.”
One of the joys for Paenga-Amosa will be the chance to play at altitude, the Wallabies having not defeated the Springboks at Ellis Park since 1963.
While the men in gold did taste victory in the Highveld back in 2010, Joe Schmidt’s side is not taking any chances, having made their way to the city of gold early to get accustomed to the conditions.
“We know the biggest thing about Ellis Park is the altitude and that, I think, plays a bit of a part in how the game will be played,” Paenga-Amosa added.
“It's a good thing that we're here now, so we get to kind of acclimatise to that altitude. I know that the boys are excited. We've had a couple of training runs already and being familiar with the plays is huge for us.
“If we nail our own detail, it'll go a long way to giving a good performance.
“We're trying not to think too much about the altitude, though, because in the end, if we nail our plays, nail our own individual roles, it'll go a long way for us.”
