By MARK CASHMAN

When he travelled over the ditch from New Zealand Jack Whetton probably had different ideas about where he would be sitting right now.

Logic says that he would have liked to have been prepping for a couple of Super Rugby AU finals games for the Waratahs, but sometimes life leads you down some side streets on the great journey.

Whetton, the son of All Blacks great Gary, has played in all three of Northern Suburbs three Shute Shield wins so far this season and played an integral part in the statement-making 33-17 win over Gordon at North Sydney Oval on Saturday.

He came off the bench in the big win over Penrith at Nepean Rugby Park, as he did for the wet one in Newcastle against the Hunter Wildfires, but the game against the Highlanders was his starting debut.

“Yeah I’m loving it and all the guys are absolute legends,” Whetton told Rugby News.

“It’s a very enjoyable environment to be in and playing in a team that’s having a few wins helps of course.

“The derby at North Sydney Oval was a great experience.

“I can remember running through the tunnel on to the ground and a few of the Gordon guys were telling me to go back home to Auckland and I just thought to myself how good is this.

“Of course I would like to be playing in the top side (the Waratahs) as much as possible but that’s part of being a professional, you’ve just got to perform to the best of your ability and be ready when the chance comes.”

Norths coach Zak Beer is relishing having the 198cm, 115kg lock in his selection mix.

“He keeps telling me that he’s loving the atmosphere of playing in the Shute Shield and getting some serious minutes of game time,” Beer said.

“It was a great game for him to have his first run on and for everyone at the club it was a day to remember that’s for sure.

“I think it was a little over 18 months since we played on the main oval at North Sydney and to have such a great crowd in there was just great.

“You could hear the buzz from the crowd when there were breaks of play from right up in the coaches box.

“I was saying to the guys in the huddle after the game that this outcome meant a lot to us as a playing group but just as important was that we have hooked in a few supporters with the way that we played.

“Someone from the Gordon camp said to me after the game he didn’t realise how physical we’d be – but we showed we can front front up there as well.

“That said we still have a lot of areas we can improve on to be where we want to be

“That was only Round Three and there is a long way to go before we even start thinking of playing finals.”

Whetton is not unfamiliar with Australian rugby and made his Super Rugby debut for the Brumbies back in 2014 before heading to Europe and the delights of the northern hemisphere.

He played for the Leicester Tigers in the English premiership as well as having time at Neevers in France and Yorkshire Carnegie back in the UK through until the middle of 2018.

Whetton linked with the Highlanders in 2018 while also plying his trade for Auckland in the Mitre 10 Cup – continuing an association with the club that stretches back to 2013.

Father Gary played 180 games for Auckland and 58 for the All Blacks and has been chairman of the Blues franchise.

His uncle Alan also played 65 tests for the All Blacks and spent 12 years with Auckland.

Whetton was eligible to play international rugby for New Zealand, England and Australia and qualifies for Australia through his grandfather.

Another run on debutant for Norths Brodie Leber was also a significant contributor in the bonus point victory for Norths.

Leber had some great ball carries and was tidy at line out times as well as pulling off some big hits throughout the afternoon.

The thing that impressed most about Norths was their ability to keep plays alive after evolving their style of game over the past couple of seasons.

Before that under the likes of Simon Cron they played a possession game and remained patient with the ball in hand, but the roster and the skills have changed and the new way is working well for now.

The perfect example of that was the second try to Reece Mau’u which saw him scoot 40m to the line after a section of play the saw six offloads and oodles of metres gained.

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Gordon coach Brian Melrose said his side finished second in a lot of areas against Norths.

“We went into the game thinking that we had been building okay but Saturday against one of the top flight teams showed that we were second best in a few areas. In most areas actually,” Melrose said.

“Defence and attack are interlinked so your effort in defence often fires up your attack and visa versa.

“If you attack well and get some points on the board it often fires your defence up. I think we lacked that intent in defence and that allowed Norths to take advantage and they did that well.

“We just couldn’t get our hands on the ball at the right end of the field and Norths put us under a lot of pressure.”

Significantly Melrose added: “There were things from that game for sure but you don’t win the comp in Round Three.

“(But) You certainly learn from games like that if you want to be one of the contenders. I think it’s fair to say that we would need to look at that game fairly hard and realise that we are not quite where we need to be in certain areas based on Saturday.”

IMAGE: KAREN WATSON