The Rugby Forum

I left my grandmother’s house and hopped on a taxi towards the Rhinos training camp, with all my bags, sitting eagerly behind on the back seat. The conversation’s always the same with taxi drivers in Jakarta; it’s always about the traffic, and politics. As an athlete in this country, only if you’re a footballer or a badminton player will you be noticed out in the city.

I really couldn’t care much about what the driver’s view on politics or the government is, I could only think of what is going to happen at camp, what I have to do at camp, how I’m going to be selected, and play to win. I start to wonder, who are the new names I read on the training squad list? This year, Indonesia has selected more uncapped players in the squad than ever. A well balanced squad of youth and experienced players make up the Rhinos squad this year.

As the taxi stops at the apartment lobby, I saw two familiar faces, A Rhino we call “the Hitman” who is from Papua, in the eastern side of Indonesia, where they are built more like the Fijians than Asians, and another Rhino who calls himself Kiwi-Indo, who as the name suggests is a kiwi, and after years of living in Indonesia, and made himself eligible to play for Indonesia currently ply his trade in Saudi. There are two more Kiwis in the squad, both as eager and proud to have a chance to represent Indonesia as the next Indonesian Rhino hopeful.

There were 40 selected for the initial squad, then after more selection phase, only 28 made it into the camp, and out of the 28 only 24 will make the Tournament Squad, and only22 will make the game day squad. In the 28, we have 4 Britons with Indonesian heritage; 3 “Kiwi-Indo”; 1 Australian with Indonesian heritage; 2 Indonesians who lives abroad; and 18 Indonesians who plays their rugby in Indonesia. Out of the 10 “imports” 7 made the first test starting XV, and one import didn’t even earn his cap until the second and last test. Indonesian based rugby players have improved in skills, fitness and experience tremendously over the years, thanks to the solid development programs set out by the PRUI (Indonesian Rugby Union).

I'm rooming with a guy who is also from Papua, George is his name, and he is also in the Indonesian 7s squad, called the Harimau (Tiger in Indonesian). Pretty interesting fellow, with an interest in music, and he let everyone know he loves music by playing it pretty loud in our room, perfect.

We all had our first dinner together as a squad, and met up with our new coach, Duncan Hall, an ex-Wallaby, head coach of USA and assistant Coach at Leicester Tigers. It’s such a cheerful mood around the dinner table, all happy to be the best 28 Indonesian Rugby player – in a country of almost 300 million populations – and all competing for the 15 jerseys. Training will be hard, we only have 10 days to train together, and gel as a team, as the Indonesian Rhinos – It all starts by who wants it the most.