Ollie Hoskins’ journey back to the Western Force was special but coach Simon Cron has revealed how close it came to being over before it started.
Hoskins played 63 minutes with a broken toe in their 54-7 loss to the British & Irish Lions at Optus Stadium.
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The 32-year-old picked up the injury two days into joining the group following his one-game loan deal from Saracens, which was designed to enable the WA-bred prop a fitting farewell.
Therefore, this wasn’t going to end his dream of playing in front of a packed Optus Stadium, gutsing through the injury in a solid performance for the hosts.
The Force scrum was excellent throughout the night, achieving more than just parity against a Lions squad filled with internationals.
“He came back quite light for a tighthead and someone stood on his toe as we were just playing and sure enough scanned it and it had a fracture,” coach Simon Cron said.
“It was not displaced so he missed out on the next two days of training so he got one week lead in time and we were able to get away with the medical staff on playing him.
“He wanted to play and he pushed forward…he did a great job for us tonight in combination with BPA and obviously Throbba [Tom Robertson] at loosehead was outstanding.”
The move allowed Tom Robertson to shift to loosehead prop with Wallabies ambitions in mind following his recall.
When the injury happened, Robertson feared the worst.
“When he went down I was thinking ‘oh s***, I'm going to have to go back to tight-head,” he said and laughed.
“That was probably my first thought and my second thought was he's actually going to be alright and then he was all good and I think he was one of our best tonight.
Robertson was full of praise for his fellow front-rower and the toughness needed to step up against the Lions.
“Going into a Lions game with a broken foot, not for the faint-hearted, he did incredibly well and I'm sure without a local injection in his foot he wouldn't have played," he added.
