Super Rugby 2021 :From Orange CYMS to the NSW Waratahs. How Jack Grant followed in famous father James Grant’s footsteps

“I would play inside him and every time someone would have a go at me, he would have a crack at them,” Jack told the Herald ahead of his first start for the Waratahs. “We played a grand final together on Father’s Day. We lost, but it was sick.”

When James was contacted by the Herald he was quick to say he did not want the story to be about his career.

His desire to have Jack’s story told is borne out of pride as at the age of 27, Grant has been forced to toil away prior to turning his dream into a reality.

“He was a normal kid. He wasn’t a standout, wasn’t a superstar and he was always really small for his age. He just liked playing. He didn’t make all the rep teams and all that sort of thing,” Grant said.

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“The thing [wife] Suzie and I are proud about is that he just loved playing footy. He had a lot of setbacks when he didn’t make teams and so on but it didn’t faze him. He was disappointed sometimes but he certainly didn’t let it stem his enthusiasm from playing any sport.”

Grant, who scored an intercept try in the famous grand final defeat to Canberra in the 1989 NSWRL grand final, also made a point of never applying any pressure to play either code.

“Because he was never the rock star or anything like that. And we certainly never, ever put any pressure on him,” he said.

“Both our kids, we used to love going to watch them play sport. But never, ever did we have an expectation on them.

“If he asked me to go down and have a kick with him I would but it was never like I was saying ‘come on we better go down and train’.”

Grant’s journey to the Super Rugby arena has taught him persistence and patience.

He arrived at Easts as an unheralded five-eighth. The club recruited one of his close friends and Grant tagged along.

After playing No.10 during Colts, Grant made the switch to No.9 and started his career in senior rugby in third grade.

His six-year journey to pulling on a different shade of blue jersey is one for the players who were never placed into any representative sides or academies in their teens.

“I had to work my way up the grades. There were a few good halfbacks [at Easts] at the time. A few boys retired the year after and I got my crack [in 2015],” Grant said. “My journey here has been a lot different to young fellas who go through the system. That’s something I will look back on and be proud of – that I hung in there and worked really hard to get here.

“It’s definitely a different way of doing it but it’s a good story for people who are still out there, trying to have a crack at it.

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“[Playing Super Rugby] was more of a dream, really. I always just wanted to be the best footy player that I could be.

“The more I played first grade at Easts and played players who were already playing here, that’s what kicked it off and drove me to want to make it.”

Grant has taken the long route to a spot in the Waratahs squad.

The same can’t be said about Henry Robertson, who will likely replace Grant in the second half of the Waratahs’ clash with the Brumbies.

With Jake Gordon and Theo Strang ahead of him in the Sydney University pecking order, Robertson has only played a handful of Shute Shield games.

“I haven’t played much against him. I only know him from [being at the Waratahs together]. But he’s a great fella. He’s a good country boy from Scone,” Grant said.

“He’ll be super excited. The whole of Scone will be here to watch him. He’s a good director but he’s a pest. He controls the game really well.”