Paddy jumps nicely on to Force wagon
NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian
April 19, 2011, 6:20 am
This time last year Paddy Dellit was a full-time university student, studying English history on the way to becoming a teacher and playing a bit of Sydney club rugby.
On Sunday he made his Super Rugby run-on debut for the Western Force against the ACT Brumbies in Canberra when they notched their first win in Australia this season.
Coach Richard Graham said before the game that he had been impressed with Dellit's two previous appearances from the bench and wanted to see what he could really do.
And he was not disappointed.
"When you bring these blokes over you've got to give them an opportunity to show what they can do and Paddy did," Graham said.
"He was good from the start and gained in confidence. He'll only get better."
Graham may have thought he started confidently but Dellit was full of nerves, at least until he launched a booming clearance kick from deep in his own half during the opening salvos.
He followed that up with a couple of big hits on Brumbies hooker Anthony Hegarty and second- rower Mark Chisholm.
"I was nervous, I really was," Dellit said. "Starting off the bench doesn't give you the thrill of starting and it was everything I expected, pretty quick, pretty physical.
"The first touch. That's certainly something I'll remember.
"Everyone was up for the game. We had a few attitude readjustments during the week. You could see we wanted it. You could sense out on the field that we were going to get it."
Dellit, 24, was approached by the Melbourne Rebels and was invited to have a look around the Brumbies set-up before getting the call from the Force.
"The Force came in and I decided to go west because with the personnel here it was best suited to my style of rugby," he said.
He was signed for one season with a one-year option.
Meanwhile, the chase for the signature of James O'Connor took another twist yesterday with the star Wallaby back stopping in Melbourne on the way home from Canberra.
The Rebels have continually denied offering O'Connor a contract although it is understood they have had talks with his management.
The Melbourne stopover was not spent completely in discussion with Rebels coach Rod Macqueen and his coaching staff and team management.
O'Connor was also due to do some corporate work with the company that uses him as its pin-up boy.
One of the aspects O'Connor will be weighing up is third-party offers.
The offer made to him from Perth interests is less than he received on his last contract, although that could change this week.
The cashed-up third parties behind the Rebels are certainly able to offer the 20-year-old some lucrative deals.
The Brumbies are also still hopeful of getting O'Connor's signature and believe that having former Wallaby fly-half Stephen Larkham as an assistant coach could help sway his decision.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...o-force-wagon/
