WA Premier Roger Cook has always enjoyed a front-row seat to international Rugby, even if one day, as a ball boy, he got too close to the action.
Rugby-mad Cook is revealing Perth’s growing catalogue of big-time Rugby matches as the state becomes a premier destination for the sport.
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Perth will host its second Test of the year on Sunday as world champions Springboks face the Wallabies at Optus Stadium.
It follows a sold-out crowd at HBF Park for July’s Test against Italy and strong attendance at the Perth SVNS.
Perth has also been locked in for next year’s World Cup opener between Australia and Hong Kong, with four sites locked in as outdoor training venues for the event.
It’s come a long way from Cook’s time as a Cottesloe junior, rising through the ranks as a half to represent WA Schoolboys at U16 and U18 levels in the early 1980s.
“Playing a Test in Perth was just unheard of [because] what used to happen was international sides would come through on their way to Australia and just do a training run in Perth so the idea of a Test match in Perth was absolutely foreign,” he told Rugby.com.au back in July
“The idea that you could have a Test match in a square, rectangular field is a dream come true. It's amazing so this is really exciting.
“We love these sort of events. We know that it does two things. It brings visitors, which is important for the economy and we know that it puts all eyes of the world on Perth, Western Australia.”
Cook fell in love with the game as a youngster, playing alongside his older brother in the U12s when he was just six.
“I played with my big brother and had this skill for tackling which involved just squatting in front of someone and they ran over and tripped,” Cook remarked.
A trip to Twickenham on a UK tour is amongst his favourite memories, facing schools across Scotland and England.
“I walked through it as a kid who grew up in this place where there's no rugby. It was just amazing,” he said.
But the WA premier can only sit back and laugh at a special memory in 1979 when a travelling Irish team stopped in Perth to begin their tour.
Considered one of the best tours Down Under in Irish history, Cook was drafted in as a ballboy for the match against WA (a 39-3 win for the visitors), where he got a literal taste of what international rugby is like.
“One of my school friends' dad was the president of WA Rugby Union so we always got dragged into being ball boys," he explained.
"On this particular occasion, this Irish halfback dashed around the side of the maul, did a grubber kick for the touch, which didn't grubber at all… I looked up and I just remember seeing this ball right there [inches from my face] and I just got taken out, retired hurt,” he said and laughed.
“Of course the whole place just erupted in laughter. I think it was the funniest thing they'd seen.”
Cook’s Rugby days are over but the lessons learnt from his stint are still applicable.
“Fall on the ball,” he said.
“That's what you have to do sometimes in politics; sometimes you just have to fall on the ball and protect it.”
