“At Least It's Nicer Than Parramatta” Sighs Lomax At The Nedlands Shops

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Sitting outside a café somewhere in Nedlands with a water bottle and a menu he hasn't looked at, newly signed Western Force recruit Zac Lomax is reportedly having a quiet moment with himself.

Not about rugby. He knows how to play that. He's had a few goes at it.

The thing eating at him right now, as he watches a woman in a Lululemon vest walk a labradoodle past a $3 million weatherboard cottage, is whether he should have just packed the Hilux and driven back to Temora.

Could've gone home. Could've driven a tractor for some wapjohns. Got a job in the mines. Plenty of blokes from school did that. Good money. No Supreme Court hearings. No one from Fox Sports ringing at 7am asking for a comment. No agents!

But then he looks around. The trees are green. The coffee is good. A man in boat shoes has just nodded at him politely. No one has called him a snake from a moving vehicle in nearly 72 hours.

It's alright here, actually. Bit different. Lot of South Africans. But apparently that's just a Nedlands thing. The boys reckon you get used to it. Like the aircraft noise in Marrickville. Only the tough can survive over there now, which means, we only have the pussy cat ones.

A woman two tables over orders a flat white in an accent that suggests she once lived within driving distance of Durban. Lomax doesn't flinch. Growth.

At time of press, Lomax had ordered a chicken schnitzel wrap with a Coke Zero and was staring at the Swan River in the middle distance, quietly wondering if Joe Schmidt knows who he is.

More to come.