After serving his senior rugby apprenticeship in France, Julian Heaven has come from the clouds to star in Super Rugby.
Last Friday after the Waratahs beat the Crusaders in a thrilling 43-40 victory in Sydney, hooker Julian Heaven could finally sit back and reflect on one of rugby’s unique journeys, which has taken in stops in Spain, France and finally Australia.
After leaving St Joseph’s in Hunters Hill at 18, Heaven was offered the opportunity to join Lyon in France in the Top 14 and eventually joined their academy, making his first team debut at 19 off the bench against Pau. Heaven arrived in one of France’s gastronomic centres unsure of what he had got himself into, but quickly built a fluency in the language and on the rugby field that changed his life.
“I spoke to my grandma and I got her to send over her birth certificate, and then I sent that over to them and, fair enough, I qualified,” he says. “And so I was asked to tour with them during a few camps and whatnot, and we played a trial against a few different French teams.
“Essentially for qualification you have to do three years in the training centre before the age of, I think 23 or 22, except when we got to the end of my time at Lyon, and it wasn’t looking like I was going to get re-signed, they determined that the first year that I signed the contract, I wasn’t valid.
“In terms of the day, it was an absolute dream come true; it’s something I’ve been working towards my whole life and I’ve been a supporter of the Waratahs since I was six,” Heaven says.
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