Angus Crichton is eyeing a Pacific Championships victory with the Kangaroos to crown the mother of all comeback stories.
Since starting the year in reserve grade, the 28-year-old back-rower’s stocks have soared with a call-up to the Australian team the cherry on top of a year which included a State of Origin series victory, the Wally Lewis Medal, the Brad Fittler Medal and an NRL charge that took the Roosters to the brink of the grand final.
Angus Crichton after Australia beat Tonga in their Pacific Championships opener.Credit: NRL Images
But even at his lowest point, when returning via NSW Cup after a well-publicised mental health battle, Crichton said he always knew he’d get back to representative football.
“To be honest, I always had belief and I always knew that I’d be back here,” Crichton said before the Kangaroos’ match against the Kiwis in Christchurch on Sunday.
“It’s all about working hard and taking opportunities when you get them. I didn’t have any doubt that I’d be back here for sure.”
Playing for the national team is a long way from country football for the Young Cherrypickers – Crichton’s junior club in the south-western slopes of NSW – and he said he still considered himself lucky to play representative football.
“As a kid you dream of playing for Australia, and I sort of pinch myself now sitting here. When I was younger, I was from country NSW, so the rep teams we made were Riverina, and we would go away and verse [sic] all the Sydney schools at state comps to even make the state team. My little country team would get smoked every time,” Crichton said.
“And you’d be sitting there with your fingers crossed every time at the end hoping that you’d made the NSW team. I didn’t use to make those teams, and to now be making the state team [and Australian team] is something that that little kid back when I was younger would have been dreaming of. It’s the highest honour for me.”
