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Record-breaker Sharpe leads by example
NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian March 13, 2010, 1:08 pm
Nathan Sharpe will become the most capped player in the Western Force's short history when he takes on his old side the Queensland Reds tomorrow.
The big second-rower is the club's man of steel, a Mr Consistency who has missed just three games since the first match in 2006, against the Brumbies at Subiaco Oval.
The foundation captain will lead the side for the 53rd time when he takes the Force into Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, beating the record of another foundation member, hooker Tai McIsaac, who played in every game of the Force's first four seasons.
The last game Sharpe missed was the first round of 2008 when he had food poisoning before a three-game tour of South Africa.
He sat on the bench and watched his side go down 17-10 to the Sharks in Durban, but bounced back for the last gasp 16-15 win against the Cheetahs seven days later.
Since then he has played 28 consecutive games, missing only four minutes of rugby - because he was forced from the field for running repairs in the blood bin in last year's 39-7 win against the Reds at Subiaco Oval.
That equates to 2236 minutes - or more than 37 hours - of hard-fought ball carrying and grunt in the engine room of the Force scrum.
Players closest to him in game time over the same period are centre Ryan Cross with 1972 minutes, breakaway David Pocock (1893) and fellow flanker Matt Hodgson (1477).
On top of that are the countless hours of training. That included dragging a sled laden with anything from 20kg-100kg around the paddock during the pre-season as he recovered from the shoulder surgery that kept him out of the Wallaby tour of the northern hemisphere last year.
As a favourite son in Queensland, his move west was nothing if not controversial and at Ballymore, the spiritual home of Reds rugby, the famous XXXX Hill was renamed the "Don't Go Sharpie" hill by fans in a last-ditch bid to get him to stay.
But Sharpe, who has never regretted the move, said: "You never really think about those sort of records.
"One day I might look back on them but right now I'm just taking one week at a time.
"The big focus is on winning. You play as many games as you can and hope the results go your way."
The Force will be desperate to get a Super 14 win this season and a first at Suncorp. They lost 29-18 in their inaugural year and 29-12 two years later.
"It's a big one for us and a big one for me I guess," Sharpe said. "It's where I started and I've still got a lot of memories even though a lot of water has passed under the bridge."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...ds-by-example/
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