By JON GEDDES

As he prepares to play his 200th first grade game for the Warringah Rats this weekend, the club’s legendary scrum half  Josh Holmes has revealed rugby saved his life when he was at death’s door lying in an intensive care bed.

While he is generally regarded as the Shute Shield’s best scrum half over the past decade, Holmes faced the most extraordinary battle at the start of his football journey.

In his first year out of school in February 2005, the rising teenage star had signed with the NSW Waratahs and was living the dream when he contracted encephalitis, the potentially lethal virus that causes an inflammation of the brain.

“I came down with a really bad headache on a Thursday and by Saturday I was in intensive care,” Holmes said.

“When I was in hospital, they told my parents they better come and say goodbye to me because they didn’t think I was going to make it.”

After three days in a coma Holmes woke up and confronted the frightening scenario that he had lost his motor skills.

“I couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk and couldn’t really see” he said.

The doctors gave him a timeframe of two to three weeks to get those skills back, and if they didn’t return, that was how his condition would remain.

“It’s got a high rate of people walking away with brain damage,” Holmes said.

“The first thing that came back was my talking and the last thing that came was being able to walk which took about a week and a half,” the ace No.9 said.

“Literally one day I woke up and it was like that part of my brain had been fixed. I walked to the toilet and when I got out of hospital it was about building myself back up each day.

“I had completed the 2004 pre-season with the Waratahs, I was training as a full-time athlete and put on eight kilograms. I was pretty lucky because even though I got sick, I was so fit that I had the ability to fight it and rugby ended up saving my life.”

Four months after his life was hanging in the balance, Holmes was back training with the Waratahs.

“I was starting back from scratch,” he admitted.

New Wallabies assistant coach Scott Wisemantel, who back then was with the Waratahs, spent a lot of time getting Holmes back to where he was before the virus struck him down.

“He was amazing,” Holmes said. ”We would do three extra sessions a week and on my days off we’d go and pass for two hours.”

By the end of 2006 Holmes was crowned international Under 19 Player of the Year by the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby).

Holmes’ tenacity and spirit to not only survive that dark chapter of his life, but play rugby again, has seen him turn out for the Waratahs, the Brumbies, the Force, and the Rebels, have a stint in France and win that memorable grand final with the Rats in 2017.

Now aged 33 and 15 years after being diagnosed with encephalitis, he is still playing first grade and set to achieve that special career milestone this weekend.

IMAGE: RISING SUN PHOTOGRAPHY

JON GEDDES is a rugby writer with more than 40 years experience. He now edits and contributes to Rats Tales, the Warringah club’s weekly newsletter