{"id":273511,"date":"2023-02-25T11:40:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T12:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=273511"},"modified":"2023-02-25T13:56:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T13:56:58","slug":"cult-hero-delivers-comeback-story-for-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=273511","title":{"rendered":"Cult hero delivers 'comeback story for the ages'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Thrush came out of a short lived retirement to score the match winning try for the Western Force in a thrilling 34-27 comeback against the Melbourne Rebels.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 37-year-old lock retired after the 2022 season to work as an academy coach for Perth's Super Rugby Pacific club.<\/p>\n

But new Force coach Simon Cron pulled a swifty – coaxing the former All Black out of retirement and putting a 'TBC' on his teamsheet during the week.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rebels<\/p>\n

As the Force's Twitter account said, that TBC ended up standing for 'Thrushy's Big Comeback\ufeff.'<\/p>\n

And as Stan Sport commentator Andrew Swain said, it was "a comeback story for the ages."<\/p>\n

"It's a bit of a strange one," said Thrush, who came off the bench at HBF Park and powered over in the 72nd minute for the go-ahead try.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Reds slapped with Super Rugby 'reality check'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'T\ufeffhat is the arrival of a young superstar'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Gordon<\/p>\n

"I got a tap on the shoulder at the start of the week to see if I was keen to have a crack at coming out of retirement \ufeffand playing so I thought why not? Put the boots back on and have a bit of fun with the boys so it was pretty enjoyable. It's an extreme way of getting out of pre-season I think – retiring and then coming back, round one."<\/p>\n

Thrush played 110 games for the Hurricanes and 11 Tests for New Zealand.<\/p>\n

He wasn't sure whether he would stay un-retired \ufeffbut joked that he might have put some club staff out of a job with his performance.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1629462996308332547?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

"That's the first week of training I've actually really had so I guess it goes to show that the strength and conditioning coaches you have in professional teams might not be needed any more, going by the way I went," Thrush quipped.<\/p>\n

The Rebels led 17-3 at one stage and were up 24-13 at halftime.<\/p>\n

But the gritty Force stuck at their task and it was a night for the forwards as hooker Tom Horton scored a brace and prop Tom Robertson also dotted down.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1629445971733282816?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

It was only the second time the Force have won their season opener, after the 2015 triumph against the \ufeffNSW Waratahs.<\/p>\n

"He's really come in and enforced a high performance culture with the Force and it has been really enjoyable," Thrush said of the highly rated Cron.<\/a><\/p>\n

"So learning all about the game as we go during the weeks and I think you'll start to slowly see that in the way we're starting to play the game and understanding when it is time to play or when it's time to kick the ball down and turn the other team around a little bit."<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Curiously, the Force's win was the only vi\ufeffctory by a home team in round one.<\/p>\n

Carter Gordon, Ryan Louwrens and captain Brad Wilkin scored Melbourne's tries.<\/p>\n

Force skipper Michael Wells, who led the Rebels \ufefflast year, had the honour of the winning speech.<\/p>\n

"You don't win the comp in round one but it's a good start for us," Wells said.<\/p>\n

"We were a bit over-eager early but we calmed down. It's great to see, early on, that we had that killer instinct.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Thrush came out of a short lived retirement to score the match winning try for the Western Force in a thrilling 34-27 comeback against […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273513,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273511\/revisions\/273513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}