Miles Amatosero’s parents thought their burgeoning boy was going to Europe for three weeks of trials at Clermont and Saracens. The giant teenager ended up signing a three-year deal.
Only the onset of COVID-19 saw Amatosero return early, allowing the teenager to take back with him more than a single suitcase and give his parents the chance to properly bid him au revoir, before returning in mid-2020 to chase his rugby dream.
After rising through Clermont’s academy rapidly, Amatosero turned down advances to stay in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to chase a dream of becoming a Wallaby by signing with the Waratahs for the 2024 season.
“There’s just lots of little things that really mean a lot to me, and I don’t want to let them just slip away,” Amatosero told The Roar in an exclusive interview.
“Firstly, being so far away from my family. The reason I went over there was not to be away from my family. Especially at a young age, it was really hard to be away from them. But, essentially, my sister’s had two kids now, I haven’t really been around too much of that, my brother turned 18 while I was over there.
“And then, of course, I can’t play for the Wallabies while I’m over there. That’s my goal, and that can’t happen while I’m over there. I’ve got to come back home at some point because I won’t wear another jersey.”
Miles Amatosero says a desire to play for the Wallabies was the catalyst behind his return to Australia. Photo: Twitter
Amatosero’s comments will be music to the ears of Rugby Australia officials, who continually must weigh up the balance between opening the country’s borders for national representation and ensuring their competitiveness on the national stage.
His pending return – after a five-month joker contract with Clermont until the end of the Rugby World Cup – is also a relief for RA.
Indeed, Amatosero could easily have stayed put and become the next French-in-waiting lock like former Warringah Rats second-rower Emmanuel Meafou, who turned down Eddie Jones’ approach to return home.
After all, it was Clermont who gave Amatesero a contract and, importantly, time to develop after signing a three-year ‘espoir’ (academy deal).
“The sort of projection was that I’d be training and playing for the academy for that first year, second year hopefully get a few training sessions in with the pros and then third year, maybe get one or two games. But in my first season I was playing with the pros,” Amatosero said.
“They definitely have the capabilities where if they see someone having a bright future in three or four years, they’ll just hold on to a player and develop him because financially they can.
“That’s not so much the case here.”
At 21, Amatosero is a developing giant in the game.
Known as “mini Will Skelton” during his teenage years, the lock is 203cm tall and weighs between 122 and 125kgs.
Miles Amatosero (L) says he’s returning to Australian rugby so he can play for the Wallabies. Photo: Instagram
It’s suffice to say the Waratahs will be getting some heavy cargo back when he returns to Sydney later this year.
But the player who left Waverley College as a 17-year-old is years further down the track than he most probably would have been had he stayed in Australia.
The lock made his debut against Ma’a Nonu’s Toulon and after rubbing shoulders during his one-week trial with Skelton at Saracens has since played the recalled Wallabies lock when lining up against La Rochelle.
“If you told me before when I was 17 that I was going be going to be living in France for nearly four years and have all these games under my belt by the age of 21, I just wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.
Miles Amatosero in action for Clermont. Photo: Twitter
In many ways, he’s done what most do at the back of their careers at the start.
“I think it really helped me mature and see the bigger picture by taking a step back and getting away from everything,” he said.
“If you only live in one place for your whole life, you get a bit of tunnel vision thinking this is all that there is, but going away was a massive eye-opener for me; rugby is not just here, rugby is all over the world.
“From the beginning, I was doing French classes three times a week, four times a week, just to pick it up. And then once I sort of got the hang of it, I found just speaking to other people, instead of doing the classes, really accelerates your French. Learning it by the book is great, but nothing will accelerate your skills by speaking with your mates.”
Amatosero has also experienced playing in the big-time leagues.
While Australia’s Super Rugby franchises have struggled to fill out their big stadiums, the rising lock has faced the pressure from Clermont’s ‘yellow army’.
“The yellow army’s about including everyone, so it’s like the fans and the team. The team is not just the yellow army. It’s like the entire people, the stadium, the town and, at the games, it’s incredible. The fans, they love it,” he said.
“But you’ve got to win the home games; you don’t win the home games, it’s not good,” he added.
The question is, why give it up at such a young age, particularly when the Euro makes any return all the more difficult?
“They can just match the contract and it just works like that,” he said.
“But again, it’s like how much do you want to sacrifice: is that little bit of extra money worth being away from everything?
“It’s not even just for the family, Australia’s everything for me. Is it worth being away from everything for a few extra coins in your pocket?”
He added: “Playing for Australia is all I want. You see it on the TV, you see these guys and I’ve always said, ‘Man, I wish one day I could be a Wallaby.’ But being overseas, I can’t even be qualified for the Wallabies because of the rules and regulations.”
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Cool story. If we are not going to invest in coaching and development this remains the best way to do it. Encourage young players to go overseas and hope that you create something here so they want to come back.
KTinHK
Roar Pro
The problem is the schism between union and league in Australia. Work on reducing that, allowing free interchange of players between the 2 codes at will, and we will go to the top of the world. Eddie is on the right track.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I don't think you understand what a straw man is. Yeah I don't get it because you don't have a consistent point, you just change your story. You're looking for reasons to justify your conclusion, rather than coming to a conclusion based on reasoning. First the performance of the Aus 20s was due to SRP being poor. When I pointed out that a small minority had played SRP, you then said the problem was that these players weren't going changes to play now, which is due to greater concentration of players (meaning higher quality) and less opportunities. Ireland and France are giving their younger players more opportunities. But what does this ultimately mean? Last EOYT we lost to both away by a point. So they are hardly light years ahead currently. Ireland have still never made it past the QF stage of a RWC. Since making the RWC final in 2011 France haven't made it past the QF stage either. Ireland u20s are better this year, but our 20s were better in 2019, the last time we played a JWC. There's more money in France, England and Japan. But given it's heavily based on private investor largesse there's very little we can do about that. We are stuck with living within our means. We can certainly improve things and should be aiming to bring the NRC back and have more high level games for developing players. But lets not get carried away. France and Ireland haven't proven long term success.
Around the Ankles
Roar Rookie
You don’t get it. The gap between north and south development is accelerating at a very rapid pace. The results will manifest increasingly at international level. You can put up straw man arguments all you want, the reality is economics favours the north and the south is getting left behind. How do we counter it?
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Could be missing piece for Tahs pack...but need one more quality front rowers but hoping Bell kicks on from here..
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Why wouldn't crusaders get to play La Rochelle? Find out best club team.
Dualcode
Roar Rookie
Sounds like a good investment for this future Wallaby hopeful
Rugbynutter
Roar Rookie
Yeh lucky Phil hence why don’t we have a short form super rugby au competition to bridge the gap. Never understood why removing super rugby au in its whole vs leaving at least single round lite version in especially given no nrc
Rugbynutter
Roar Rookie
Yep
Around the Ankles
Roar Rookie
The Australian academies just don’t compare. A good U16 player in France will be playing in a academy team attached to a pro club. They will be playing in a national comp that runs for 8+ months of the year. The players development has oversight from multiple specialists etc. Our academies are part time at best and probably cover a few months at most.
TC
Roar Rookie
Rugbynutter I believe a lot of these targeted kids grow up playing both..School Rugby Saturday's..Club League Sunday's..They go where the best money and opportunities are..Personally I don't understand all the Raiding Talk from either side, think it would help if they were looked at as Professional Footballers?
Sydney Slug
Roar Rookie
Respectfully all the comments so far have missed the key issue here which is an emotional not structural one. “Playing for Australia is all I want. You see it on the TV, you see these guys and I’ve always said, ‘Man, I wish one day I could be a Wallaby.” “What do you wanna be? A walla wallaby” actually had resonance 20 years ago. I hope Miles is a roaring success for the Tahs, but his attitude has already made him a favourite for me.
Olfella
Roar Rookie
Scary is correct, I played representative rugby as a prop in NSW at 178cm and 87 kilos, but then again at school in Sydney playing Under12s you had to fight for the loose head. My coach taught me how to win that by head butting my opposition. I still remember his constant words of advice, “ Mate, if your opposite number isn’t bleeding by the 3rd scrum you aren’t doing your job” So yeh …. Things have changed a little !!
Sir Les
Roar Rookie
Gidday Nick. Nice to see you pop in cobber.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
What rubbish. Can you honestly try and say Meafou would have the work rate and cover the ground of any lock in SRP? He’s valuable in Top 14 because it’s generally more physical (his strength) and not as quick (his weakness). Players like Meafou and Skelton have been going over for 20 years and looking like world beaters. Because their strengths align with how the game is played and what coaches want. Surely even you can take a break for a moment from talking about how advanced the NH is, and acknowledge that different competitions see different types of players succeed. Which is exactly my point when comparing the 2. Miles is a lot more like an SR lock than Meafou is.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
You’re now changing the point. You said SRP wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be implying it doesn’t prepare the players. Now the flaw is they don’t get a chance to play. No professional competition is going to be run with one main objective being to prepare players for U20s.
Around the Ankles
Roar Rookie
You miss the point entirely. Most of the French team have played Top 14. The academy system in Europe is vastly superior to what is on offer in the southern hemisphere. That is why our inexperienced team got smashed by a team that draws from the best club comp in the world.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
This is TWAS-twaddle and you probably know it. :laughing: Meafou is far more advanced than Amatosero and last season kept Richie Arnold out of the Toulouse starting lineup. If he was avalable for France for the WC, they would start him instead of Willemse.
pm
Roar Rookie
He looks much more tailor made for how the French play than the how they do down under to me. It was intriguing to imagine him and Skelton in the same 23 but I don't think it would work. And we don't have the likes Flament, Woki, Ollivon in the backrow.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Super happy reading this