{"id":224369,"date":"2025-06-29T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/224369\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T16:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:01:17","slug":"i-would-give-up-my-left-testicle-tom-robertson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/224369\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I would give up my left testicle’: Tom Robertson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So just how desperate is prop Tom Robertson<\/a> to play for the Wallabies again?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would give up my left testicle,\u201d the Western Force<\/a> veteran says without hesitation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been three years since Robertson last pulled on the Wallabies gold.<\/p>\n

Since then, he has ruptured his ACL, spent a year-long study sabbatical at Oxford as part of his path to becoming a doctor, and fell back in love with rugby again.<\/p>\n

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\"VideoBritish & Irish Lions in collaboration with the RugbyPass App<\/p>\n

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Robertson produced a standout Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> campaign this year to win the Nathan Sharpe<\/a> Medal as the Western Force\u2019s player of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Team Set Plays \"Team <\/p>\n

100%<\/p>\n

Restarts Received Win %<\/p>\n

50%<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old further bolstered his Wallabies hopes with a strong display for the Force in Saturday night\u2019s 54-7 loss to the British and Irish Lions<\/a> in front of 46,656 fans at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Force\u2019s scrum was widely tipped to be humbled against the Lions.<\/p>\n

But powered by Robertson\u2019s efforts, the Force\u2019s scrum stood firm all night, and was arguably the better of the two teams.<\/p>\n

Robertson has notched 31 caps for the Wallabies since making his debut in 2016, and his selection in the squad for next Sunday\u2019s Test against Fiji<\/a> in Newcastle<\/a> shows he\u2019s now well and truly back in the frame.<\/p>\n

Getting a gig to feature in the three-Test series against the British and Irish Lions would be a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean the world,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I haven\u2019t played a Test since 2022, and that\u2019s the highlight of your career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would give my left testicle to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be in the squad is an honour, and to push for a gig in that 23 would be unreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came close last year being in the squad for a bit, but I had a few injuries and didn\u2019t make the 23. <\/p>\n

Player Tackles Won <\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

\"Team <\/p>\n

Josh van der Flier<\/p>\n

21<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

\"Team <\/p>\n

Nicholas Champion de Crespigny<\/p>\n

17<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

\"Team <\/p>\n

Joe McCarthy<\/p>\n

17<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be an unreal experience to play a Test against the Lions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson said there were definitely moments he doubted he would ever feature for the Wallabies again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my ACL in 2023 and took a year off, went over to Oxford,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great fun. And I sort of got away from rugby, but I think that was the best thing for me. I really got that drive back. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was away, there were definitely moments there where I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d come back to professional rugby, but I\u2019m very glad I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve got that spark back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Force player who boosted his chances of a Wallabies recall was Dylan Pietsch<\/a>, who was the standout performer against the Lions on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old produced a series of dazzling runs in the first half in what was just his second match back from a serious quad injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a 25cm grade-three tear in my quad,\u201d Pietsch revealed of the injury.<\/p>\n

\"TomWallabies prop Tom Robertson. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty big, it was in the first three minutes of the Highlanders<\/a> game (in round eight), when I went to take off and it just ripped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietsch returned for the Force\u2019s final game of the season, and credits the team\u2019s physiotherapist, \u201cMagic\u201d Mike Neil, for having him in tip-top shape. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel smooth,\u201d Pietsch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the back end of last year, and then going into the start of this year, I was kind of fighting for a lot of things. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike my joints weren\u2019t really going that well. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be able to not have to worry about that, and get to the speed and the agility that I want to be at is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So just how desperate is prop Tom Robertson to play for the Wallabies again? \u201cI would give up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-224369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114767494383528270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}