2016 shapes as a year which could be fairly memorable for the Western Force’s home grown Haylett-Petty brothers, 22 year old utility forward Ross and 26 year old fullback Dane.
The duo, who both played in their side’s convincing 28-0 pre-season trial victory over the Hurricanes in Gosford last week, appear destined to play a lot of Rugby alongside each other after appearing together on only a handful of team sheets for the Force, Perth Spirit and Cottesloe to date.
“We’ve only played together a couple of times so it’s always exciting and that’s one of the reasons why I am really looking forward to this campaign; Ross has put in the hard yards and we’re hopefully both set up for a good season,” says Dane, fresh off a career-best season which saw him finish third in the Nathan Sharpe Medal.
Traditionally seen as a back rower, teammates including Chris Alcock, Angus Cottrell, Matt Hodgson, Kane Koteka and Ben McCalman have combined to limit young Ross to just two Super Rugby appearances in his young career. This year, he’ll again compete with them but he’s also added a new string to his bow; he’s been training in the second row as well, and he is clearly in a good frame of mind heading into the new campaign.
“To start pre-season with a win makes it all worthwhile off the bat,” he says. “Everybody at the Club’s in a really good space at the moment, and we’re ready to fly into this Super Rugby season; we’ve worked bloody hard this pre-season and it’s exciting to think I might see a bit more action this year.”
Indeed, according to Dane there’s no limit to what the Force can achieve off the back of a disappointing 2015.
“We are looking at finals for sure; we’ve changed the way we’re playing, we’re trying to bring in such an exciting brand of Rugby and we’re loving training and playing as a group,” he says. “As brothers, Ross and I want to get out there together and enjoy the time on the field as much as possible; we do realise that we are so lucky, as not many brothers get to play sport together at an elite level.”
It’s a fair point; the only other brothers playing together for Australian Super Rugby teams are Wallaby twins Anthony and Saia Fainga’a at the Reds (with their brother Colby at the Rebels), while Richie (Western Force) and Rory (Brumbies) Arnold may well come head to head in Round Three at nib Stadium.
It’s not just on the field that things are exciting for the Haylett-Petty brothers; 2016 also sees the potential realisation of plenty of off-field goals on the horizon as well. Ross is about to finish his undergraduate degree in Economics and Business Law, while Dane is about to finish his Bachelor in Finance and has a new business to keep him busy as well.
“I’ve actually got an exam in 20 minutes, and then another tomorrow, and that will see me complete my degree in four years,” Ross tells us, as we quickly look to finish the interview up! “I’d really like to finish my degree, as quite frankly I’m finding it difficult to devote time to it during a busy Rugby schedule, but I am really glad I’ve found a way to do it.
“Both my parents have put a big emphasis on education, and I have a short attention span so I would go mad if I wasn’t doing something away from Rugby,” he continues. “I’m just trying to set myself up for the future; hopefully my Rugby career lasts a long time but you don’t know for sure, so I will continue to try and keep learning about as much as I can to prepare for me what comes next.”
It’s pretty impressive going from Ross to have achieved this much less than a month after his 22nd birthday, after first shooting to national prominence starring for Australia at the 2014 World Rugby U20s Championship in New Zealand in 2014. Dane, a fellow Australian U20s representative who also played for the Australian Schoolboys and Australian Rugby Sevens teams before first signing for the Force, is going great guns away from Rugby as well.
“I’ve got one more unit to go in what has been the longest degree ever; its eight years now, and Ross has actually passed me, but I’m nearly there,” he laughs. I’ve also started up a healthy drive through restaurant business with my sister, so hopefully I can compete with McDonalds!
“It’s great to get away from Rugby every now and then and put into practice my commerce studies a little. My sister and I live together; she does the day to day running of the business and at night time we go through the day and make the overall business decisions. On my days off I’ll also jump behind the counter and take a few orders when I can as well!”
Click here to find out more about Dane’s business, Nourish & Feed; below are their awesome looking Cherry & Mango/Strawberry layered chai pudding smoothie cups!
Dane’s always been keen to keep busy; after starting his career at the Force, he moved to France (Biarritz) for three seasons and then had a Japanese Top League campaign with Tokyo Shokki Shuttles before returning to nib Stadium in 2014.
“It was tough in my early days at the Force as I was competing with so many Wallabies for a spot in the team; Drew Mitchell, Cam Shepherd, Scott Staniforth and Ryan Cross were all here,” he says when I ask why he moved abroad at such a young age. “It was difficult to get any sort of game time and I always believed in playing lots of footy; France offers 36 games a season and that was a real attraction to me.
“In my first season at Biarritz, I had two injures but still played over 25 games and I think in general that accelerated my growth. Also, playing different styles of footy with the physicality of France and then the pace of Japan helped me complete my game a bit better and work on different skills.
“I went over there for the experience and to play as much as possible, and I think it’s the best thing I ever did, but I also went over knowing that I wanted to come back and have a real hot crack at the Wallabies and that’s why I’ve signed a new deal in Perth until the end of 2017.”
Coming off a career-best season, Dane’s Wallaby aspirations appear entirely possible of being realised in 2016. Last year he was a constant threat in attack for the Force, where he was ranked third for the season in run metres per game, averaging over 100m, while managing 17 offloads and 48 tackle busts for the season.
“I did feel a lot more comfortable in 2015 getting back to fullback, which allows me to get a bit more involved in the game,” Dane says. “I feel like I have built on my game coming into this season, and within the backline we all know how each other play; it’s going to be an exciting year for us.”
Despite being born in Durban, both Dane and Ross grew up wanting nothing more than to wear Wallaby gold, even if their parents didn’t necessarily agree.
“We moved from South Africa quite young (Dane was ten and Ross five) and the goal has always been to play for the Wallabies; hopefully in the next few years we can make that come true,” Dane says. “All South Africans are diehard Rugby people, even though Mum doesn’t love that we play; she actually tried to push Ross in different directions after seeing me play and watching all the ups and downs that come with a career as a professional, but she watches all of our games.”
So would their parents leave Springbok loyalties to the side if one, or both, of the boys represented Australia?
“They’d switch over to the Wallabies without a doubt if we were playing,” Ross says with a laugh.
