NSW Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble is motivated to prove his heroic performance against the British & Irish Lions is the new normal as he looks to turn the side’s fortunes around in 2026.
Gamble produced one of the best individual performances of the tour for the ‘Tahs, producing four turnovers in the narrow defeat to a stacked Lions team
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He backed this up with player of the match in the First Nations Pasifika match, becoming the first since Israel Folau in 2013 to pick up the honour in a losing effort.
It left the 29-year-old the talk of the touring media pack, eager to pick up where he left off in Super Rugby Pacific.
“I felt like I showed I could play to a very high level and to the highest level,” he reflected to Rugby.com.au.
“I just got to make sure that I'm consistent across the board and I'm doing it week in week out instead of just doing it one week and then having two weeks off.
“For myself, I've just got to find my strengths, which are probably the defensive side of the ball and the physical side, making sure that I'm getting the ball back for the boys and that the attack flows from there.”
Gamble is taking plenty of lessons out of the Lions' experience, especially his week in the
First Nations Pasifika camp, which came the closest to upsetting the Lions in all the non-Test tour matches.
“I look back, and it was probably the funnest week I've had in my rugby career, having that week down in Melbourne with all the boys and learning about everyone's cultures, where everyone began their journey and the different levels of hardship that everyone went through,” he reflects.
“It was actually very, very powerful and obviously we didn't get the result, but it was a very fun game to be part of… I think at the end of the day, look, we've got to remember where we've come from, and we all started as little kids throwing the ball around for fun, and we enjoyed that aspect.
“Obviously, as you get older and you aspire to be professional, sometimes you forget about that, and sometimes you're a bit hard on yourself, and you forget about all the fun parts of rugby.”
The flanker is motivated to bring the Waratahs back to the finals after a promising start fell away towards the end of the season.
Dan McKellar’s side started the year with three straight wins; however, they lost seven out of their last nine to finish in eighth.
“You can really see in training that it's really gelling well, and obviously the new boys that have come in this year have only had experience and skills, so yeah, very positive signs so far,” he added.
“So much experience coming back and it's already shown so far during training, those boys have come in and have been leading from the front and really driving the whole squad to be at our best and driving high standards.
“I can really notice it around training and, you know, when it comes to game time, I know that'll be very big to kind of fall back on.”
