OU’VE BEEN HANGING
around in a Canberra log
ard with David Pocock. Now
time to go and suddenly the
has vanished. He was last
headed out back, from
the barking of a vicious-
g dog is ringing out. The
ck by until, lo and behold,
ppears, cool as a sax player.
’d been searching for the
d wanted to thank him forPocock tells me later, “I think
t’s right.”
re version of a wider
k takes off. Pocock isn’t
nk he should be. But the
shake off their annoyance
ecause he’s heeding hisissed it, Pocock checked out
by las t year. A s go o d as he is ,
he is to the fortunes of his
nchise, the Brumbies, and to
e took a voluntary timeout
from his duties to both. Instead of packing
into scrums and winning turnover ball, he
spent six months in his birth land of
Zimbabwe, doing a bunch of things that
simply wouldn’t for a second enter the head
of 99.9 per cent of people. But that’s Pocock.
That’s the example he sets. Be your own man.
Dance to your own beat. Never mind what’s
typical. Do what’s right.
Fortunately for Australian rugby, what felt
right for this year was a return to the fold.
Pocock’s back in headgear and primed for
the Wallabies’ three-Test series against Six
Nations champions Ireland this month.
Football is his focus again. But it will never
be his world.TAKE STOCK OF YOUR LIFE
“Hi, how’s your day been?” That’s how Pocock
gets the conversation rolling with Vicky, the
hair and make-up person on this pristine
afternoon. The game of life seems effortless
for him. But it’s really not. Strength of
character isn’t immunity from struggle. It’s
a basis for dealing with it.“I turn 30 next week,” says Pocock. He
laughs, mirthlessly. “I don’t know. My partner
always gives me crap because I usually have
a crisis on my birthday.”
A crisis? “I guess it’s a time to reflect on
where you’re at,” he says. “On how things are
turning out. Whether you feel like you’re living
a life that your younger self would have been
proud of.”
It’s a remarkable revelation. Many of us are
justified in thinking we’ve semi-wasted our
time and talents. But Pocock? He’s a giant of
his sport, universally admired for his courage,
strength and skill. Off the field he’s made his
mark as a progressive who’s spoken out on
issues from coalmining to sexual equality. You
may disagree with him sometimes. But you’d
find exactly no one in his orbit who would
claim Pocock has been sleepwalking through
his days.
“That’s why Em [partner Emma Palandri]
gives me a hard time,” he says. “Because I’m
always saying ‘I haven’t done enough’ or
‘There’s so much more to do’.” He seems lost
in thought. It’s as if you’re not there anymore
and he’s ruminating in solitude. “We’ll see,” he
continues... “Yeah, we’ll see... You always
want to make the most of opportunities...
You don’t want to take anything for granted...
It’s that thing: how do you live a good life?
What are your values and how do you live
them? How do you stay true to them in a world
that demands so much and there are so
many competing forces pulling on you?”
So you ask about his values but there’s no
pat answer. Instead there’s more grimacing
as he says our culture has bludgeoned values
to death. “We talk about them so much, to the
point where they don’t mean much anymore.”LEAVE YOUR WORLD BEHIND
While Pocock’s musing you look him over,
starting at his broad, thong-clad feet. He has
several blackened toenails well along the way
to falling off. Others are misshapen, as though
they’ve been asked to grow back once too
often. His shins are a mess of cuts and scabs;
his knees bear multiple scars.
Rugby has left all these marks. Rugby, in
which Pocock’s knack is to stand astride an
opponent and rip the ball from his grasp asOut of Africa:
fans have welcomed
back Pocock with
open palms.