MAN OF GOD READY TO RUN FOR FORCE
Thursday, 29 October 2009 8:48pm
By Chris Pike
Joel Rapana has turned from a mission for God to being on a mission to scoring tries for the Emirates Western Force in the 2010 Super 14 season.
After moving from New Zealand to Queensland, Rapana was a hot rugby league property during his junior career, but went into the family business instead of playing in the National Rugby League straight out of school.
That family business brought the devout Mormon to the regional communities of Western Australia where he worked to serve the mission for his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Rapana is one of 10 siblings, and their father Eli is the bishop at the Tweed Heads church.
He would have had it no other way either despite giving up some big NRL offers, but he did return to league ranks in 2007 when he joined the Gold Coast Titans for two seasons. He has now decided to return to rugby union and to Western Australia, and is excited about being at the Force.
"It's been a good opportunity to come back and touch base with a few people I had spent time with while I was here on my missionary service, and it's been good to come back," Rapana said.
"At this time in my life I'm looking at it with a new uniform, something with a different colour and that can give me opportunities to help me out with the future that I intend on having."
Rapana has no doubt he will be able to quickly adjust back to rugby union now that he's with the Force and taking part in pre-season training. He is looking forward to stepping into a role on the wing next year and scoring plenty of tries for the boys in blue.
"In converting back to it now the kicking side of things is what you have to focus on. We don’t do a lot of kicking in rugby league, especially in the outside backs, so I will take on board Mitch's ideas of working hard and maintaining those technical areas that I'll need in my game," he said.
"If I just put my head down, work hard and show that I'm here for the whole time and I want to work to prove that I can start on the wing and play outside Ryan Cross, then that's what any coach is looking for from my experiences. That's all I can do.
"I consider myself to be a finisher. I'm not one of the pigs who sits inside and does a lot of the dirty work, but I like to finish, score tries and play out wide to run in the open field."
Rapana is proud of the decision he made to serve his church and has no doubt it has helped him to develop into the man he is now who is ready and willing to become a Super 14 force.
"At the time it wasn’t a difficult decision because I grew up with the intention and desire to serve the mission for our church. It was something my older brothers did and my father and uncles did, so it's part of our lifestyle and something we do as we grow up," he said.
"Rugby league or union was just another thing that we did on the side of our church. I'm grateful I got the chance to go out and do it when I did. The experience I had there taught me to grow up.
"I didn’t have my mum to do my washing and things like that, so it was a tough curve ball that I had to take in my life and grow up with. I can look back on it now that I'm over here in the west and I don’t get homesick anymore, which is a good thing."
