James O’Connor is welcomed by West Harbour coach Matt Briggs – Photo: Jeremy Brennan

by Brendan Bradford –

New West Harbour recruit James O’Connor had a pretty good excuse for being late to his first official engagement at Concord Oval on Thursday evening.

The 22-year old Melbourne Rebels playmaker had earlier dropped in on the Pirates’ training session across the road at St Luke’s Oval when he was spotted by a local junior team who were practising nearby. The Wallabies star was quickly swamped by the youngsters and happily spent the next 20-minutes signing autographs and posing for photographs before making his way to Concord Oval for a meet and greet and a BBQ.

Having made the decision to play club rugby in Sydney some months ago, O’Connor cites the strong junior set-up at West Harbour as a major drawcard for signing a three-year deal with the Concord based club.

“It was something I’ve had in my mind for a while and when I decided to play in the Sydney club competition, it all happened pretty seamlessly,” O’Connor told Rugby News on Thursday.

“(Pirates stalwart) Rory Sidey’s in my Rebels team, and they have a great grass roots program here with junior teams and it just fits quite well.

“Even if I’m not playing as much as I’d like, hopefully I’ll be able to come down and help out at training and bring that enjoyment whenever I can. That’s why you play rugby, because you enjoy it – I’m pretty good on the barbie as well.”

Despite heavy Sydney University influences at the Melbourne Rebels, O’Connor said he didn’t want to join one of the big sides in what he describes as the best club competition in Australia.

“Everyone talks about it and it’s no secret that the Sydney club competition is the best, but the big thing for me was I didn’t want to go to a big club like Sydney Uni or Randwick,” he explains.

“I wanted to be able to help out and those clubs already have their own players. There’s a good attacking style of rugby here but maybe I can bring a defensive aspect and help out with that.

“But a big thing is the enjoyment, and everything I’ve heard from the guys and past players is it’s a good group, which is what you get from club rugby and I’ve never been involved in that before.”

Graham Green (President Club Burwood), James O’Connor, Tom Games (First Grade Captain) and Tony Horrocks (West Harbour Club President) – Photo: Jeremy Brennan

With a busy Super Rugby and Wallabies schedule, he’s realistic about how often he’ll get to turn out for the Pirates, but club President Tony Horrocks says the signing coup will do wonders for a club that isn’t a traditional competition heavyweight.

“He was after a substantial village club with a good bunch of juniors that he could get involved with and that’s just the sort of bloke he is,” says Horrocks.

“We’ve always supported and been quite close to our juniors and he’s going to be as advantageous to them as he is to the seniors.

“He’s pretty keen to play and we’ve got an agreement in terms of promoting the club and (major sponsor) Club Burwood have an arrangement with him, but it’s not a huge amount of dough.”

Enjoying their best start to a season in years, the Pirates are fourth equal on the table and First Grade coach Matt Briggs believes if the great run of form continues, O’Connor will make an appearance at Concord Oval sometime this year.

“If we’re good enough and make the finals, there’s a very good chance he could play for us then, so if we got two or three games out of him this year I’d be very happy,” said Briggs.

“It’s great for the Shute Shield, great for rugby and great for the West. This is a competition that I know is the best club rugby in the country and to have him playing in it is going to increase the interest and increase crowd numbers and it’s just a great thing for club rugby.

“He’s a quality young man and he really is passionate about the game. He’s a great role-model and he genuinely cares about the growth of the juniors in the area. He’s watched our tapes and he likes our style which is very conducive to his ball in hand running style too.”

An instant hit at his new club, O’Connor stayed at Concord Oval for over an hour chatting with teammates and fans and posed for every photo request.