By Graham Croker
Courtesy of Sydney University Football Club
Pilfering a ball at the feet of a marauding All Blacks pack takes great courage, skill and commitment, attributes Australian flanker Phil Waugh has in spades. He’s been doing it at Test level for a decade.
Studying for a university degree at the same time, in the hours while the bruises change hue, also takes commitment. He’s been hitting the books for over a decade. But it paid off for Waugh on October 7 when he graduated from the University of Sydney with a Masters of Commerce and a Masters of International Business.
Having enrolled in an agricultural economics degree when arriving at the university in 1998 fresh-faced from the Shore school, where he also excelled in cricket and athletics, Waugh says in his understated way: “I’ve chipped away at it over the years.” Indeed he has. Soon after enrolling, Waugh found life in academia was always going to be one interrupted by rugby. He was selected in the Australian Under 19s in his freshman year, made his debut for NSW and Australian Sevens as a sophomore and was signed up for the Waratahs in 2000, making his Super 14 debut against the Stormers at Capetown. He also cracked the Australia A side that year.
The degree took a passenger seat while he played a full season of Super 14 and was relegated to the back seat when he won selection on the Spring tour of the northern hemisphere. He made his Test debut with an off-the-bench appearance against England at Twickenham at the end of 2000.
During those years he was part of the Sydney University Sport and Fitness Scholarship program, which was established in the early 1990s to assist athletes to combine their academic and sporting careers.
“The program at Sydney University Sport and Fitness has been very helpful,” Waugh says. “They certainly make the degree doable when you have to fit it in with a sporting career. But in saying that, you have to work hard to get the degree. There is a perception out there that you play for Sydney University and they sort out a degree – that is far from the truth. You have to get the runs on the board and put the work in.”
As Waugh’s career blossomed, with Super rugby seasons followed by Test campaigns – interspersed each four years by World Cup campaigns – he found ways to “chip away” at the degree.
He consolidated his place in the NSW team and pushed for a regular berth in the Australian team over the next two years, and culminated the effort by producing a 2003 season that should have been bottled. He won the John Eales Medal as the best and fairest Australian player, was selected in the World Cup squad and named vice-captain. And as he continued to rack up games for NSW and Australia he kept chipping away at his studies.
“I always took university work away on tour,” he says. “Sitting on aeroplanes and in hotel rooms provides good time to keep up with reading and work on assignments. It was often the best time to get things done.” When marriage and children followed, that time spent studying on tour became even more valuable.
Then captaincy intervened and ate up more study time. Waugh captained Australia against Wales in 2006 and was at the helm twice more in 2007. That year he also assumed the captaincy of NSW, a role he continued until officially retiring at the end of this season.
During his 12 years in the representative cauldron he played a record 135 games for NSW and won 79 Test caps. While amassing that enviable record, his appearances for Sydney University were limited, but he still managed to pull on the blue and gold hoops 47 times in First Grade, the last being the recent grand final loss to Eastwood. And whenever he couldn’t play he always turned up to “run the water”.
While travelling the world and representing state and country have provided many highlights, a career after football was always in the back of Waugh’s mind and to that end he kept at his studies. “I’ve enjoyed studying for the degree, it adds a different sort of pressure from the rugby field,” he said. “It’s added a balance to life away from football.”
Sharing his big day on October 7 were his three biggest supporters - wife Michelle and sons Jack, 6, and Charlie, 5. “I’m not too sure if there’ll be more university study on the horizon,” he said, with two youngsters eager for some of his time. “But the degree gives a certain amount of credibility moving into the workforce.”
Another season with Sydney University is still up in the air.