Super Rugby
Polota-Nau happy to go west for Tahs' Chiefs trial
Brittany Mitchell
February 4, 2015
Waratahs coach Michael Cheika says his side won't be talking 'title defence'

Tatafu Polota-Nau is excited to get back onto the pitch for the Waratahs after spending six months on the sidelines through injury - especially if it's in front of his home crowd in Sydney's Western Suburbs.

Polota-Nau has slowly been working his way back to the Waratahs squad after sustaining a knee injury during the Super Rugby grand final and then an ankle problem against Argentina in the Rugby Championship, but he's been boosted by the Tahs' decision to take their glamour pre-season trial against two-time champions Chiefs and Sonny Bill Williams out West to what the proud Parramatta Two Blues clubman describes as the "rugby heartland"; he's hoping the trial gives rugby a chance to convert rugby league enthusiasts.

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"Absolutely [I'm excited]," Polota-Nau told ESPN. "Being a Western Suburbs supporter when I was a junior, yeah going out to Campbelltown will bring back fond memories really. It's rugby heartland.

"I think it will be great for the local community; it's such a wide catchment down there for us to go out there and expose a bit of rugby. I think it'll help with Izzy [Folau] being the local Minto junior growing up there as well; he'll have a lot of family and also friends who grew up near there as well.

"But just to give rugby the spectacle it requires for the game to grow; you can see the enthusiasm of a lot of locals coming up to our games at not just Homebush but Allianz. But that said, we still need to show our support by getting our games out there as well - and I think hopefully we can convert some rugby league enthusiast into rugby enthusiasts."

Polota-Nau believes rugby has to make better efforts to retain young local talent in the Western Suburbs, and focus on the juniors in order to grow a following in the region.

"It's just an awareness, really," Polota-Nau told ESPN. "I think most of the boys grew up from the west, really, but they have been approached by the clubs from the Eastern Suburbs. It's not to say that the locals aren't there; they've just been scouted well by other clubs.

Polota-Nau said that rugby had to build "more of an awareness to have the option of rugby … like what I think they do really well in rugby league. [League] looks after them really well at the junior age whereas rugby we don't really focus on them. So hopefully there'll be talk about the positives of what rugby has to offer, probably be more our focus to get out there and spread to the west."

Australia's Tatafu Polota-Nau suffered a serious ankle injury, Australia v Argentina, Rugby Championship, Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast, September 13, 2014
Tatafu Polota-Nau's 2014 season was ended by an ankle injury in the Rugby Championship © Getty Images
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Polota-Nau, meanwhile, told ESPN that his injuries were "coming along, which is good".

He said he experienced "a bit of a niggle towards the backend of the season 2014 [and] untimely circumstances coming from the first injury during the Super Rugby final but playing against [Argentina] created a new one in the ankle. I was trying to get back for Spring Tour but obviously wasn't ready for it.

Polota-Nau described the Waratahs' pre-season training under Michael Cheika as "brutal" but he said he had been "working hard at it because at the end of the day I'd love to get back on the field where these guys are just busting their butts trying to get fight for a spot".

"Obviously not being as youthful as I was back in the day, I just have to manage it.

"Pre-season training has been quite brutal, because obviously the environment doesn't help being hot and sticky. But at the same time it's just a matter of more the mental toughness that you have to fight out the hotness of the environment and you have to make sure your accuracy is on target because there is only a small window of opportunity to better your performances each week."

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