Super Rugby Pacific 2023: Waratahs star Joey Walton opens up on injury heartache and road to recovery

Joey Walton was on cloud nine after getting through last year’s National Provincial Championship across the ditch.

After being restricted to only a handful of matches over the previous two years because of devastating ankle and ACL injuries, the burgeoning midfielder once again started to purr during the competition.

His skills and pace were on show against Waikato late in the season when his left-to-right pass hit the mark before backing up on the inside to score for Bay of Plenty.

But, having ridden the lows of missing almost two entire Super Rugby seasons, more devastation was on the way for the midfielder before the year was out after suffering a herniated disc.

“I just sort of woke up one day and couldn’t feel my legs, so it wasn’t great,” Walton said.

Walton to this day doesn’t quite know why his back went, describing it as a “mystery”.

At no stage did Walton think about hanging up the boots.

“Not for a second,” he shot back.

But he did say that his most recent setback before the new year hit the hardest.

“Obviously, the knee is hard because that took me eight-and-a-half months to get back, so it’s quite a long time, but probably the hardest one was the more recent one, my back,” he said.

“I went to the NPC, I played and sort of felt like I’d got away from the injuries and then I sort of wasn’t quite ready for that one. It struck me when I was feeling pretty good. I’m lucky it was a quick one. It was only 12 weeks from the op until I played again, but early doors on that one that was tough.”

For most, 12 weeks would seem like an eternity. Not Walton though, who was ranked higher than Lalakai Foketi by former coach Rob Penney.

“I don’t really know how it did, after being angry and upset for so long eventually it just turns and you’ve just sort of got to get on with it,” the 22-year-old said.

“I don’t know, there’s nothing more fun than playing rugby. So once you get out there, you’re out there.

“It’s definitely a gradual thing, sort of small milestones in your rehab. You go from learning to walk and then you start running, jumping, sprinting. As you just slowly tick those things off, you’re building confidence and you just get excited when you know you’re going to play soon.”

Having knocked away Auckland during the competition, Walton is set to return to Eden Park on Saturday when the Waratahs travel across the ditch to take on the Blues.

The match shapes as a difficult one for the Waratahs, with the Blues boasting Test quality throughout their side and the Walton’s sides injury-ravaged.

Test forward Dave Porecki and Ned Hanigan (concussion) will miss the match while Lachie Swinton is set for a stint on the sidelines after he was cited for a reckless, high and late shot on Force playmaker Jake Strachan.

Walton, who is one of the very few players in Australian rugby to won at Eden Park, wasn’t too concerned by being the rank outsiders.

“If you look at my career so far the odds have been stacked against me the whole time,” he said.

“So, it’s nothing new. I think all the boys, if there’s a lot of us out or more boys coming into the team, everyone should be excited and fresh and all we can do is our best.”

Meanwhile, forwards coach Pauli Taumoepeau said the Waratahs wouldn’t be resting on their laurels after getting back on the winners list.

“We’ve got so much work to do,” he said.

“That’s one game. We got to go to Auckland. One game can be lucky at times, you’ve really got to get a roll on. It’s just got to be more consistent. I don’t think we’re in here rolling around thinking, right?

“We’ve got a pretty big mountain to climb this weekend against the Blues and we’ve got to be better than what we were on the weekend.”

Despite the injury setbacks, as well as Swinton’s likely ban, Taumoepeau said the Waratahs were confident in the depth of their squad.

“You’ve just got to trust,” he said, “like it’s a big squad.

“We’ve been training with 40 guys for a very long time and you get a sense that the guys that haven’t been getting a run want to be part of it, and this is a really big opportunity for them and we really want to go and have a good trip.

“We need to take that next step against a quality opposition and what a challenge. We’ve got to face this head on.

“We’re really excited and it’s a really awesome opportunity to tell those guys that haven’t been in the 23 that this is your shot, Eden Park, Blues, they’re going to play all their guys, we’re going over there to face this thing head on and we need you to be at your best.”

The Waratahs at least have some depth in the forwards, with Taleni Seu likely to shift to the second-row and promote Will Harris to the starting side with Langi Gleeson unlikely to be risked.

Test hooker Tolu Latu, who hasn’t played for the Wallabies since the 2019 quarter-final, will likely return too.

“We’re really excited about what he [Latu] can bring for us at set-piece, especially at the scrum,” Taumoepeau said.

“I remember last year when we played the Blues at Leichhardt, it was obvious we were the lighter pack. We were running super hard and getting nowhere, so that was a big part of our ‘power up’ focus and having someone like Tolu add to our set-piece around our maul and our maul-defence will be a positive.”