Rugby: Wallabies inspire at juvenile justice centre

Stephen Larkham was among the Wallabies personnel that visited the Frank Baxter juvenile justice centre. Photo / Getty Images

There are 120 youths at the Frank Baxter juvenile justice centre, and the hope after the Wallabies visited them this week is that "one, two or three of them can go on to play rugby union for Australia".

Tatafu Polota-Nau, Sekope Kepu, David Pocock, Dane Haylett-Petty, along with coaches Stephen Larkham and Nathan Grey, spent more than two hours with the inmates on Tuesday.

The centre's program manager Sione Ofahengaue, brother of former Wallaby hardman Willie O, organised the meeting and was blown away by the reaction of the prisoners afterwards.

"There are 120 of them aged between 16-21, they have committed every kind of crime you can imagine, but they are also victims in a sense," Ofahengaue said.

"They have come from troubled homes, there has been alcohol abuse, other kinds of abuse.

"But the talent here is undeniable, it is amazing.

"Our centre has a 50-year history with rugby union, many of the boys here play for the Kariong Rugby Union Club.

"It was great to see the Wallabies players, hear their stories. They were only supposed to be here for 40 minutes, but they arrived at 10.30am and left around 1pm.

"We had to cut it off because the kids wouldn't stop asking them questions."

One of the key questions was; "What keeps you motivated to keep going at training to be successful".

"That one stuck out, because all the players had different answers, but the next day when I spoke to the boys, they were all blown away by the professionalism and willingness to work hard," Ofahengaue said.

"Our hope is always that these kids turn things around. We hope that after listening to the players, one, two or three of these 120 kids can go on to become Wallabies."

Polota-Nau said it is up to the inmates to heed their advice.

"We spoke about doing the most you can in the circumstances you've got, working with what you've got, because you can't change that," Polota-Nau said.

"They asked us how we all became Wallabies and we had four different answers, and each of them resonated with the guys in there.

"Dane (South Africa) and Poey (Zimbabwe) moved countries, had to start from scratch.

Keps grew up playing all his rugby in New Zealand before getting an opportunity here.

"I grew up in a league-dominated area where people didn't know what union was.

"We told them about what we had to give up to get here - losing friends who were going in a different direction.

"I'm glad the boys understood the purpose of our visit; that they are just as capable of making it to the Wallabies as we are. It's whether they choose to make the sacrifices to get there."