Super Rugby: Bo Abra makes his Super Rugby debut in Western Force's win over Fijian Drua

The moment the 22-year old front rower has been dreaming of, and working towards, since he was a young boy running around the footy fields in Tamworth finally arrived at Leichhardt Oval last Saturday, with Abra making his debut in the Western Force's dramatic win over the Fijian Drua.

Thrown on with around 20 minutes remaining it was everything the former Pirate had hoped for and more, although he joked "he can't remember what happened in the game"; the mix of adrenalin and emotion making it all "a bit of a blur".

READ ALSO:

On the periphery for a few years - before moving to the Force he was part of the Waratahs and Brumbies systems - it wasn't just the realisation of a dream but vindication in a way.

"I just feel like finally I've been able to prove myself and it's only made me hungrier for more and to grow as a player and to become potentially a Wallaby in a few years or however long it takes," Abra said.

It was all the more special for being able to share it with his mum and dad, and brother and sister. Being over in Western Australia he's pretty much estranged from them for the last two years. He counted he's probably seen them in total for about a week-and-half.

"I wouldn't be here unless it was for them," he said of his parents.

"When I was in the juniors and they were taking me all around NSW on the weekends or rep trials throughout the week or whatever it was - I wouldn't have been able to do it without them."

"It was sort of emotional after the game, I ran over to mum and dad and mum was crying so then I started crying and my sister started crying."

It was the culmination of a journey that, in pursuit of his rugby dreams, saw him leave home when he was 15 to board in Bathurst, and has taken him from there to Sydney, Canberra and now the other side of the country, and has tested his faith and resilience.

Never more so than in the last year.

Playing in a club game over in Perth in July he suffered a horror ankle injury in a tackle and was nine months in rehab. It was only supposed to be four months but he ended up having to have a second surgery to remove the scar tissue that had built up around his ankle.

Abra admits it was tough, especially being so isolated from his family.

And while he never considered giving up on his dream it tested him mentally "to stay motivated and committed to loving rugby".

"That's why I was so emotional at the end of the game because my parents knew and I knew what the journey I'd been on was like," he said.

"It was so up and down."

"It just felt like a massive tick of the box sort of thing," he added.

"Especially with the injury as well, that's the cherry on top really, to come back from nine months. I've only been back training with the group for about three weeks or so.

Called over as an injury replacement, Abra was "pretty stoked" to get the time he did.

"Especially in a tight game like that they don't usually give younger guys or debutants that many minutes so to get 20 minutes I was able to sort of express myself and play some rugby," he said.

"It was cool that the coaches had that trust in me that I could go out there and do the job."

He will get another chance to pack down on Friday night being named on the bench for the Force's Heritage Round clash with the Brumbies.

"I'm pretty keen to play my first game over here," Abra said.

"The 'sea of blue' over here is so strong and we get such a massive crowd over here all the time and they're so supportive, it's going to be pretty cool playing in front of them."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: