From chasing Ponga to Wallabies bolter: Inside unheralded star's Test push
Nursing a nasty black eye he struggled to keep open, Richie Asiata could not help but laugh when reflecting on his journey from the brink of Australian rugby exile to shock Wallabies prospect.
Last year he was doubting his ability to break back into the Queensland Reds fold, let alone garner a Test jumper, as a series of injuries curtailed his career and left him sidelined for the entire Super Rugby Pacific campaign.
'I did my MCL at the beginning of the year, then came back from it and injured it again. I tried to come back again, then injured it again, so it wasn't the best feeling,' Asiata said, days out from the Reds' clash with the Brumbies on Saturday.
'Then I came back and did my back as well, so it wasn't the best of times. There are low times … you always have doubts, we're human after all.
'You've just got to have close ones with you, and my family really helped me through that.'
At 29, and with fellow hookers Matt Faessler and Josh Nasser becoming prominent members of the Wallabies squad, he needed something to change.
His first elite-level game of 2024 against Wales rejuvenated him – Asiata scored a hat-trick, before embarking to New Zealand to don the Northland colours in the Mitre 10 competition.
Star showings on the Reds' tours to Tonga, Japan and the United Kingdom followed, and he won the No.2 jumper to launch the 2025 season, before Faessler and Nasser succumbed to hamstring and shoulder injuries, respectively.
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Martin Flanagan
Martin Flanagan is a journalist and author who writes on sport, Australian culture and the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia.
