Pat McCutcheon was out of the game for a year before coming off the bench against the Brumbies last weekend – Photo: Carl Peterson

by Paul Cook –

Scoring your first try in Super Rugby would be a career highlight for most players but for NSW Waratahs back rower Pat McCutcheon, it is a moment he’d rather forget. The date was Saturday March 10th 2012, the location was the new Forsyth Barr indoor stadium in Dunedin and the opposition was a rampant Highlanders. Five minutes into the second half, Highlanders fly-half Colin Slade cleared his lines but an ever alert McCutcheon charged down the kick and as the ball shot backwards to the home side’s 22, a foot race ensued. Given the tragic outcome, McCutcheon probably wishes it was one he’d lost.

“I remember the charge down and regathering the ball and scoring,” says the 25yr old “but as we hit the deck and heard a noise, I looked at the other bloke and said ‘Was that you?’ He said it wasn’t and then I saw my foot pointing in the wrong direction.”

The freak tangling of legs with Buxton Popoali’i as he dove for the chalk resulted in a fractured left tibia and a dislocated ankle, but while most observers were left gingerly looking the other way, McCutcheon reacted with relative calm and a steely resolve that reflects his no-nonsense approach and attitude to his life and his rugby.

McCutcheon is treated by medical staff after the horrific injury

“Berrick Barnes and Dave Dennis were the first two to get to me and Berrick went to grab me and pull me up and I was like, ‘Berrick, have a look at my ankle’ and he had more of a shock than I did. There was obviously a bit of disbelief at the same time but yelling, screaming or crying is not going to make a difference to the reality of what’s in front of you, you’ve got to stay in control regardless of the situation and the situation was that I’d broken my leg.”

Nine pins and a plate insertion later, he began the long, lonely road to recovery. The initial prognosis was around six months but when he started to try and get some running into his legs back in October, it was clear all was not well. “I remember my first run was at Latham Park in Randwick and I was probably the ugliest runner in Australia at the time!” he recalls. “I ran for probably 4-5 weeks and got some gradual improvements but at the same time, my pain was quite high. I was needing four to five days between sessions before I felt ok to train again so that raised concerns that something wasn’t right.”

An MRI scan confirmed the suspicions and further surgery was required. “When they opened me up, they were surprised I could run at all as there was a wall of scar tissue in the joints so they cut all that out and cleaned up the cartilage area and then it was eight weeks off my feet with no running or impact. I was back to square one again.”

Take any elite athlete away from what they were born to do for an extended – and indefinite – period of time, and boredom, frustration and disillusionment is inevitable. McCutcheon admits there were times when he had to chase off the demons inside. “Obviously, you have your dark days throughout the injury but it’s a part of sport. I was depressed and I found it quite difficult, I didn’t say anything to anybody and I probably should have done but I knew that I had an end date and that my foot would be right and I would be able to train and therefore, that would all be forgotten, but it was still hard.”

New Waratahs coach Michael Cheika is a fan of McCutcheon’s work rate and application – Photo: Carl Peterson

One thing that helped him through those ‘dark days’ was his appointment as the Waratahs first club captain, a fine gesture and an obvious sign of the high regard he is held in around Moore Park. “It is a major honour,” he proudly states. “It was a massive boost of confidence and that feeling of being needed and wanted was a massive motivation for me.”

His time away from the field coincided with pivotal changes throughout the Waratahs organisation and he admits that watching that transition from the disastrous end to last season, through the departure of Michael Foley and up to the introduction of Michael Cheika, hasn’t been an easy ride from the backseat. Trying to impress a new coach who’s sweeping the broom through the New South Wales corridors is a difficult task when you’re not able to take an active part in proceedings.

“Michael Foley was a coach that had watched me for a few years so he wasn’t someone that I’d have to prove myself to. Michael Cheika came in with a clean slate, he didn’t have any expectations of anyone, we all had to make our own ground and not being able to join in the training until mid-February makes it hard to prove what you can do if you’re not out on the field.

“However, how you prepare yourself shouldn’t change – whether you’re doing a rehab run or going to the gym or doing analysis for the weekend and to give me that opportunity last week [against the Brumbies] shows he was reasonably impressed with the work I did off the field at least.”

After only a few weeks back with the squad and almost a year to the day since the injury occurred, he was back in the fold. Cheika, a lover of old school toughness and application, appears to be a fan. Explaining the selection, he said of McCutcheon, “His attitude is one people should be inspired by because of the way he prepares himself. I want that type of character in the team.”

McCutcheon and the Tahs will be looking for a better outcome than the Cheetahs’ last visit to Sydney in 2011 – a 23-3 loss

As it turned out, the 35-6 loss in Canberra wasn’t one that he would have wanted to come back to but he impressed enough to get a starting spot in the no.8 jersey for tonight’s vital game against the Cheetahs. Moving from the openside to the back of the scrum, he has been entrusted with the role of enforcer and it’s a challenge he looks forward to. “I love the confrontation, I love the challenge, I love the contact and I love the personal battles on the field and whether you’re running the ball or making that tackle, it’s all those little challenges you have through the game that I enjoy.”

One thing’s for sure, with a hesitant fanbase unconvinced as yet by the new look Tahs, defeat against the South African entertainers is unthinkable. “We want the Sydney crowd to come along to our games and for them to want to do that, we need to perform. We’re proud to represent our state and we’ll do anything we can to win this game, there’s going to be no hesitation in our actions, we’re going to go out there with definite intent. We need to play a smarter game but we need to pay attention to detail, if we can do that, we’ll be right. Once we get the new style and the new system stuck in our heads, we’ll be a force to reckon with. The players are there, the artillery is there, the gun’s loaded, it’s just a case of pulling the trigger.”

NSW Waratahs fans everywhere will be hoping that tonight sees the safety catch well and truly taken off. It’s time to stand up and be counted and if McCutcheon’s bloody mindedness, passion and dedication to the cause can permeate through the entire matchday 22, there can only be one winner.