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Tough ... Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Source: The Daily Telegraph
FORGET about what you have seen of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. The one who cops Simon Dwyer's right arm on the chin - literally - before shaking off the mind-stinging concussion and rising to his feet again. Reel back a few years to when he was a young boy growing up in the badlands of Rotorua, just down the road from Ford Block where gangs fight one another like they are at war.
Here, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is a thin white kid with bleach-blond hair.
His father Wayne is "just a Kiwi white boy"; his mum Karen is a "dark Maori girl".
BLOG LIVE WITH JARED WAEREA-HARGREAVES TODAY AT 10AM.http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegr...its_up_a_blog/
"It was quite rough," he explains. "There was eight of us living in a three-bedroom house. We'd all bunk up, with my cousins with my mum and aunties.
"I was the only little white boy. A little white boy with blond hair, getting bullied each day.
"I was this little skinny kid wandering around. I'd go to a bilingual school that was Maori and English.
"The kids would say to me that I wasn't Maori and I'd used to stick up for myself. And they'd give me the bash.
"I didn't know how to defend for myself. I had my cousins who did it for me. They were all big. I realised one day I had to start defending for myself.
"I guess it has got me to where I am now."
Of course, the delectable irony of this is what Waerea-Hargreaves is now: a fearless big-hit merchant who cares not of the consequences when he launches into a tackle.
So imposing is his presence on the field, it is easily forgotten he is only 21, only made his first-grade debut in May last year and up until three years ago had barely watched rugby league let alone entertained the notion of playing it.
An example ... this week, legendary hardman David Gillepsie reckoned Dwyer's tackle on Waerea-Hargreaves was the "most brutal of the last decade". Waerea-Hargreaves only had a vague idea, when asked, who the great "Cement" Gillespie was. "I never really fancied league," he admits. "It was only through 2007 that I really started watching it."
You need to know that Waerea-Hargreaves doesn't say this with a hint of impudence.
There's some depth to the kid, who has the off-field disposition of a puppy dog.
"He's eccentric off the field," says Roosters captain Braith Anasta. "But when he's on it, he's an animal."
His father is a former UN peacekeeper who has helped others all over the world. His mother often chips her son for burning his cash on big-ticket items a professional contract can afford. "This is what I've always dreamt of - becoming a professional footy player," he says. "I was talking to some supporters the other day and they said I must hate signing so many autographs. I actually love it. I've wanted this since I was a little kid. People asking me, 'You're that Hargreaves kid?' This is a privilege."
He has taken the road less travelled to the Roosters - from golf prodigy to junior rugby union international to league convert - but has always played beyond his years.
When he was a teenager playing first-grade rugby for Northern Suburbs, a hard-headed forward on the other side commented on his youthful appearance when he was sent on as a replacement.
"Run at me and see how young I am," Waerea-Hargreaves invited the veteran player, who notably kept his distance for the rest of the match.
He came to the Roosters this year via Manly, and he's relished his time under coach Brian Smith despite suffering a dislocated shoulder on the eve of the season.
At his first training session, a pass went askew. His head dropped. "My confidence dropped, too," he recalls. "Smithy pulled everyone up and asked me to throw it again. I hit the spot and I was, like, sweet. He definitely encourages you. Makes you realise you are actually capable of playing footy."
The other delectable irony of this story is Waerea-Hargreaves has always felt chest-thumping pride in the Maori blood that courses through his veins.
In 2007, he represented Australia at the under-19s Rugby World Cup in Ireland and stood across from the Junior All Blacks as they performed the haka. "I watched them do the haka and, to be honest with you, mate, it wasn't right," he recalls. "I should have been doing the haka with them."
Last year, with just a handful of first-grade matches under his belt, he made his debut for New Zealand against Tonga ... in Rotorua.
"To do that last year in New Zealand, in my home town in front of my whole family, I could've walked off that field and been satisfied with that," he says proudly.
And you wonder what those who bashed him as a kid think of him now.
I didn't know JWH had a rough time as a child so good on him for making it to where he is today. And congrats to the DT, one of their very rare feel good articles.
FORGET about what you have seen of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. The one who cops Simon Dwyer's right arm on the chin - literally - before shaking off the mind-stinging concussion and rising to his feet again. Reel back a few years to when he was a young boy growing up in the badlands of Rotorua, just down the road from Ford Block where gangs fight one another like they are at war.
Here, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is a thin white kid with bleach-blond hair.
His father Wayne is "just a Kiwi white boy"; his mum Karen is a "dark Maori girl".
BLOG LIVE WITH JARED WAEREA-HARGREAVES TODAY AT 10AM.http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegr...its_up_a_blog/
"It was quite rough," he explains. "There was eight of us living in a three-bedroom house. We'd all bunk up, with my cousins with my mum and aunties.
"I was the only little white boy. A little white boy with blond hair, getting bullied each day.
"I was this little skinny kid wandering around. I'd go to a bilingual school that was Maori and English.
"The kids would say to me that I wasn't Maori and I'd used to stick up for myself. And they'd give me the bash.
"I didn't know how to defend for myself. I had my cousins who did it for me. They were all big. I realised one day I had to start defending for myself.
"I guess it has got me to where I am now."
Of course, the delectable irony of this is what Waerea-Hargreaves is now: a fearless big-hit merchant who cares not of the consequences when he launches into a tackle.
So imposing is his presence on the field, it is easily forgotten he is only 21, only made his first-grade debut in May last year and up until three years ago had barely watched rugby league let alone entertained the notion of playing it.
An example ... this week, legendary hardman David Gillepsie reckoned Dwyer's tackle on Waerea-Hargreaves was the "most brutal of the last decade". Waerea-Hargreaves only had a vague idea, when asked, who the great "Cement" Gillespie was. "I never really fancied league," he admits. "It was only through 2007 that I really started watching it."
You need to know that Waerea-Hargreaves doesn't say this with a hint of impudence.
There's some depth to the kid, who has the off-field disposition of a puppy dog.
"He's eccentric off the field," says Roosters captain Braith Anasta. "But when he's on it, he's an animal."
His father is a former UN peacekeeper who has helped others all over the world. His mother often chips her son for burning his cash on big-ticket items a professional contract can afford. "This is what I've always dreamt of - becoming a professional footy player," he says. "I was talking to some supporters the other day and they said I must hate signing so many autographs. I actually love it. I've wanted this since I was a little kid. People asking me, 'You're that Hargreaves kid?' This is a privilege."
He has taken the road less travelled to the Roosters - from golf prodigy to junior rugby union international to league convert - but has always played beyond his years.
When he was a teenager playing first-grade rugby for Northern Suburbs, a hard-headed forward on the other side commented on his youthful appearance when he was sent on as a replacement.
"Run at me and see how young I am," Waerea-Hargreaves invited the veteran player, who notably kept his distance for the rest of the match.
He came to the Roosters this year via Manly, and he's relished his time under coach Brian Smith despite suffering a dislocated shoulder on the eve of the season.
At his first training session, a pass went askew. His head dropped. "My confidence dropped, too," he recalls. "Smithy pulled everyone up and asked me to throw it again. I hit the spot and I was, like, sweet. He definitely encourages you. Makes you realise you are actually capable of playing footy."
The other delectable irony of this story is Waerea-Hargreaves has always felt chest-thumping pride in the Maori blood that courses through his veins.
In 2007, he represented Australia at the under-19s Rugby World Cup in Ireland and stood across from the Junior All Blacks as they performed the haka. "I watched them do the haka and, to be honest with you, mate, it wasn't right," he recalls. "I should have been doing the haka with them."
Last year, with just a handful of first-grade matches under his belt, he made his debut for New Zealand against Tonga ... in Rotorua.
"To do that last year in New Zealand, in my home town in front of my whole family, I could've walked off that field and been satisfied with that," he says proudly.
And you wonder what those who bashed him as a kid think of him now.
I didn't know JWH had a rough time as a child so good on him for making it to where he is today. And congrats to the DT, one of their very rare feel good articles.
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