In his series on players reflecting on their debuts for Australia, RUPERT GUINNESS speaks with Wallaby No. 823, Dean Mumm who earned 57 Test caps in a career that came in two parts to the surprise of many – Mumm included.
It is Tuesday, June 3, 2008. Dean Mumm is at Manly Oval in Sydney. He’s feeling good in his new Wallabies training kit.
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It is a surreal moment. Mumm was only made aware of his selection in the 30-player squad three days earlier, the morning after he and the NSW Waratahs lost the Super 14 final 20-12 to the Crusaders in Christchurch when the then NSW team manager Chris Webb told him to change his plans.
Mumm is 24 and one of seven new faces in the squad; along with Waratahs Luke Burgess and Lachie Turner, the Western Force’s Ryan Cross and Richard Brown, Queensland Red’s Peter Hynes and the Brumbies’ Ben Alexander. Born in Takapuna near Auckland in New Zealand, Mumm, a lock-cum-backrower is super keen to impress the new Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, who coached the Crusaders. “It was like letting your dog loose at the dog park first up,” says Mumm.
Which was all good until Mumm who was “thinking I was pretty hot shit,” picks up a ball and passes it long to seasoned 28-year-old Test lock Nathan Sharpe who is unaware, until the ball hits him “straight into the back of the head.” Sharpe’s reaction stings Mumm. “The look on his face … he’s got beady eyes. He was drilling holes into me,” says Mumm.
Mumm laughs about the moment today; but at the time it was a reality check for the upward trajectory in passion, expectation and responsibility that his rugby career had just taken, and would follow from his first Test selection on the bench against Ireland in Melbourne 10 days later to his last, a 37-21 loss to England at Twickenham on December 3 in 2016.
A STAR-GAZING TEST DEBUT
Mumm’s pathway to the Wallabies was not out of the blue. He had played for Australia Under 16s, Australia Schools and NSW Schools, and Australia ‘A’. But he was still surprised by a Wallabies call-up the day after the Super 14 final. Albeit, his mind was a little foggy from the game and post-match swill. “So, it wasn’t as illuminating as you think,” jokes Mumm.
Mumm had time to get his head around his selection over the next days as the Wallabies trained in Manly before flying to Melbourne for the June 14 Test at the Docklands Stadium.
Once the Wallabies arrived in Melbourne and checked in to the Langham Hotel things became more real for Mumm. Mumm felt “a little daunted,” but many rookie Wallabies do. It was especially so upon learning of his selection on the bench by Wallabies manager Phil Thomson in his team announcement at the team room the Tuesday before the Test. “I was surprised, but also a little embarrassed,” he recalls. “Like, ‘whether I had earned it … ‘Am I good enough to be here?’ Then you hop on the bus and go to training.”
Before he knew it, Mumm was receiving his first Wallabies jersey on the eve of the Test for the Lansdowne Cup after the ‘Captain’s Run: “I remember getting my jumper, then going down to my room. I didn’t put it on. It was folded. I put it on my bed. It was, ‘it’s all on for tomorrow.’ You get that wave of joy, then nervousness and fear that it’s on tomorrow.”
Match day was special from start to finish. Travelling to the game in the bus, Mumm sat next to Burgess who with Hynes were the other Test debutants. His parents could not attend, but those of his then girlfriend and now wife Sarah did. No sooner had both teams warmed up, Mumm was singing the national anthem before a 47,500 crowd. He concedes his selection on the bench as No. 18 meant the occasion was “a bit of an anti-climax … before you know it you are packing someone else’s track suit into a bag and off to the sidelines.”
But there was a benefit of his bench selection too. “I had 15 or 20 minutes to cool down and settle my nerves after kick-off,” he says. “You felt you were a spectator, but had an opportunity to watch from very close. I also didn’t have to wait until the end because ‘Sharpie’ got a ‘blood bin.’ I came on around half-time. You go on, run around as fast as you can and are absolutely exhausted from doing heaps more [work] than you should. Then you are off field again. In some ways, I had two debuts. I went on later to finish off the match.”
It was terrific for Mumm that his debut ended in a 15-7 win. It also meant he could share centre stage within the Wallabies circle with the two other Test first-timers – Burgess and Hynes - when they sang the Australian anthem after being awarded their caps. Another highlight was visiting the Irish locker room after the game; not to swap his Test jersey, but meet legendary Irish locks Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan, the “two Munster men” who Mumm concedes he was “probably fanboying” when it came to the occasion.
ONCE A WALLABY ALWAYS A WALLABY
Mumm says he rarely took time to reflect on his first Test jersey as a player: “You think about it in the weeks after. But my first was the first Test of the season. Then you move on to the next week to earn your next one. You think, ‘I got one. Wouldn't it be great to be two?’ And that’s the way it works.”
Today, Mumm sees that first jersey as “a memento of resilience … to when you were really happy and proud that you became a Wallaby and remain a Wallaby.” He would like “a positive reframing” of how retired Wallabies are referred to. Instead of being labelled ‘former’ or ‘ex’ Wallabies, he feels that they should always be recognised as Wallabies, much as the Classic Wallabies and Rugby Australia seek to do by numbering Wallabies in the sequence of their selection.
“It’s a disservice to say rugby won’t always be a significant part of your life,” Mumm says.“If you could change the term like the Olympians do, where you are still an Olympian, but a ‘Rio Olympian,’ or a ‘Sydney Olympian.’ You could be a ‘2008 Wallaby’ and still feel a part of it. It doesn’t have the connotation of ‘ex’ and ‘former’ that means ‘no longer’.”
Mumm’s first Test jersey remains in safe storage, but it is not framed and hanging on a wall at home as are his caps for his 50th Test, first Waratahs game and five Tests at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England where the Wallabies made it to the final, but lost 34-17 to the New Zealand All Blacks.
The 2015 World Cup was still the peak of Mumm’s career, that came to an end in late 2017. After missing out on the 2011 World Cup, he left Australia to play for England club Exeter Chiefs believing his Test days were over. But in late 2014 Michael Cheika replaced Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie - Deans’ 2013 successor - after coaching the NSW Waratahs to the 2014 Super Rugby title. Mumm telephoned Cheika who would continue to coach the Waratahs in 2015.
“I asked if I come back, would there be any barrier [for Wallabies selection] … if I was good enough.” He said, ‘No,’” Cheika also warned Mumm there: “will be no guarantees.”
Mumm returned to the Waratahs for the last weeks of the 2015 Super Rugby season “on a wing and a prayer.” Sarah stayed in England for their expected son Alfie's birth, the plan being that Mumm would return for it, no matter his World Cup fate. But it was soon evident an early return would not occur. After “two or three weeks,” Cheika told Mumm he was ‘in” for the Wallabies camp at Caloundra. He then made the squad for the Tri Nations in which his Test return came with selection on the bench against Argentina in Mendoza where Australia won 34-9. It was the “rebirth” of Mumm’s Test career: “I remember that as strong as my first Test, if not stronger.”
FROM TRAGEDY TO TRANSITION
Rugby success aside, Mumm also faced tragedy. In 2012 while playing for Exeter, the Mumms lost their first child, daughter Sophie, to premature birth. Eighteen months later, their son Henry died nine days after birth from an infection.
Despite the dark moments, Mumm says the family grew stronger from the experience, and that for him “a saviour” was found in rugby: “You had a reason to get up and go to something every day.” It also provided him a purpose.
“My purpose then is my purpose now. It's maximizing opportunities I have because my children did not get the opportunities. That was the purpose I had to come back [to Australia]. You’re privileged being a rugby player. You have the opportunities others aren’t fortunate to have. There’s an onus to go for these opportunities, make the most of them.”
That purpose rewarded Mumm. After making the Wallabies 2015 Tri Nations squad, he earned his first World Cup selection for the 2015 tournament in England and Wales.
During the Cup, Sarah gave premature birth to their son, Alfie in London a few days before Mumm was to captain Australia against Uruguay. Mumm made a two hour pre-dawn dash by car from the Wallabies’ hotel in Bath to London for the birth.
A bond formed between the Mumms and Professor Mark Johnson, a world leading obstetrician who attended to the birth of Alfie, now the elder brother to their latest son Rupert who was born in March, 2020. An expert on complicated pregnancies, Professor Johnson founded the Borne Foundation that works to fund premature birth research.
The Mumm’s ties with Borne strengthened. Before retiring from rugby in 2017 with the Waratahs (for whom he played 124 times, including 112 in Super Rugby), Mumm accepted an invitation from Borne to a fund-raising expedition to the North Pole led by English Test star, Will Greenwood in April, 2018. After returning to Australia, the Mumms created an Australian arm for the British based charity, the Borrne HMRI (Hunter Medical Research Institute) that focuses on funding Australians to assist in global research of premature birth.
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This year Mumm was to have gone on another Borne expedition, a 280km kayaking, mountain biking and trekking trip in Costa Rica from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean, but COVID put the brakes on that big plan until 2022, at least.
For his transition from rugby, Mumm drew on how teammates Al Baxter and Phil Waugh navigated theirs’ beyond completing university degrees; Baxter through his part time work in architecture, Waugh with his ‘rotation’ in various areas of the banking sector he works in today.
Mumm completed a Masters of Commerce and a Bachelor of Business while playing. He served as President of the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA) in 2017, his retirement year, and remains on the board of directors. He has since forged a career in insurance broking and occupational health, as the Head of Employer Services for Recovre, an occupational rehabilitation company owned by Marsh.
However, Mumm’s transition did not pass without challenge. “The greatest is finding things you can continue to be passionate about that provide a similar level of satisfaction to what rugby could,” Mumm says. “I totally underestimated the role that exercise plays in your mental wellbeing.”
Simple tasks were even a challenge for Mumm whose first job after rugby was with JLT, a British insurance broker later purchased by Marsh. He once posted a social media photo of him at a bus stop, admitting he had forgotten what to do when catching a bus. “I also had to call my wife and ask how I catch the bus home,” he adds. “I never knew the bus you catch into the city was the same number you catch home.”
Optimism aside, Mumm warns that transition can be difficult.
His advice to today’s players is to prepare for it: “Absolutely. “You're doing a disservice if you're not thinking about it. Commit [to rugby] when you’re playing, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about other things around it.”
