‘Too late to slow down': Koroibete on that Adelaide tackle and unfinished Wallabies business
'I predicted right – but I got there too early,' Koroibete continues. 'Instead of tackling with my right shoulder, I used my left. I was lucky I didn't get a yellow card, maybe, looking at it. But I did try to use my arms.
'I was full-tilt. And when the ball was there, it was too late to slow down. I thought, 'Yep, just have to do this'.'
Without a single tap on the brakes, Koroibete collided with Mapimpe, sending the Boks winger skyward and almost straight over the corner post like a high jumper. Commentators were confused – did Mapimpe leap? – until replays revealed the crazy that had unfolded.
'It was like he was shot out of a cannon,' former All Black Andrew Mehrtens said of Koroibete.
Koroibete: 'It didn't hurt, it was just a shock. It's a full sprint and then eyes up and the ball was there. It happened so quick. I was just lying down and thinking, 'What's just happened?' The boys pulled me up and go, 'You got him'.'
'The boys pulled me up and go, 'You got him'.'
Marika Koroibete
Koroibete also scored a try that day, and was in the middle of everything. He was man of the match as the Wallabies defeated the world champion Springboks.
'That was my first time playing here,' Koroibete said. 'And hopefully there are some more good memories to make this weekend.'
This weekend Koroibete is back in the City of Churches as one of the star attractions of the Australian and New Zealand Invitational XV, who play the British and Irish Lions on Saturday night, in the last tour match before the Test series gets underway.
In 2022, when Koroibete was at the peak of his powers and won his second John Eales medal, it would have been easy to assume the flying Fijian would go on to be part of the Wallabies' Test campaign against the Lions in 2025. He is still only 32.
But some challenging years then followed for Koroibete. The 2023 Rugby World Cup, and Test season, was a slog with no real winners, and 2024 saw Koroibete's form dip for the Wallabies. It ultimately ended in surgery for a broken wrist.
So when Joe Schmidt was putting together a squad to take on the British and Irish Lions, he rang Koroibete in Japan and explained he was going with local players.
'I understood that,' Koroibete said. 'They have a lot of players playing well and I spoke to Joe, and totally agreed with what he was saying.'
The mystery of Koroibete's fall from grace tracks back to the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, when the former Storm star says his love for rugby was majorly challenged. They'd been preparing intensively for months.
'You work so hard for something, and get nothing for it, it's tough,' he said.
But as many Australian-based players went home and took a long break, Koroibete had two weeks off and was straight back into the grind for Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.
'I went back and thought, 'I'll play well for my club, and then get my break'. Playing for the Wallabies, and building for a World Cup, it takes a big toll out of you,' he said.
When that season finally finished, Koroibete was cooked, and, believing the Wallabies would look to rebuild their squad in 2024, he didn't expect a call-up from new coach Schmidt.
'I relaxed, and was in half-holiday mode. I didn't do any training and in my mind I was going to come back to the Wallabies. My mind switched off. I was just like, 'I will go home and then go back to Japan in September',' Koroibete said.
'But I got picked, and I went in. Yeah, I know I wasn't in my best form last year. And I ended up getting injured.'
Koroibete broke his wrist in the first ten minutes of the Wallabies' tight loss to New Zealand in Sydney but played on, and it wasn't revealed until a week later. He thought it was only a bruise but when asked to do a push-up, he couldn't. Surgery followed.
Koroibete had an injury-affected season in Japan but says he is now in good nick, and returns to Adelaide in a far better place mentally as well.
He is not done, as far as Wallabies aspirations go, and plans on showing Schmidt – and the Australian rugby public – as much against the Lions.
'This year, mentally, I am totally different,' Koroibete said. 'Even though I didn't play that much games with my wrist injury, this year I am in good shape and I want to get back to my best, and show that.
'There is a lot of high expectation for me from people, because I had been playing well for the Wallabies for the last few years.
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'Meeting that expectation is my big motivation this year. I want to get back to my best.
'Not being picked in the Wallabies, I understood. But now we have just this weekend to try and show my potential. Hopefully,I will get a call from Joe later on, if he needs me.'
The AUNZ side is a unique chance to impress a whole bunch of people.
'It is a team that hasn't played together since 1989 – 36 years there – so for us, it is a massive opportunity to show the Anzac spirit,' Koroibete said.
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