He mightn't have got the win he was after but Mick Snowden rates playing for the Melbourne Rising in Tamworth on Sunday as one of the best moments of his career.
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After being originally named on the bench, the hometown boy played the full 80 minutes, and loved every minute of it.
“Honestly it's one of the best experiences of my rugby career to come here and play footy in front of my family and on the ground I first started playing football on,” he said.
The former Pirates half-back ironically played with the Rising's opponents on Sunday – the Country Eagles – in the inaugural year of the National Rugby Championship and would have probably played in Tamworth last year but for injury.
“It was a huge disappointment to miss out playing at Pirates last year. But it was one of those lucky things I got to come back home the next year,” he said.
“I've been looking forward to this day for the whole season.”
He even got a “meat pie” to top it off, scoring the opening try in the second half, much to the delight of a group of Pirates stationed just behind where he scored.
It was for the Rising a story of too many mistakes in the first half.
“Three times we turned the ball over at wide breakdowns and three times they went 50 and 60 and scored,” Snowden said.
“We cut that out in the second half and held them to zero points and scored three tries so I think that's a big learning curve for us.”
“They're too good a team to give away easy points to.”
The Rising have made something of a habit of second half comebacks. The previous week against Queensland Country they piled on 30 unanswered points. On Sunday they scored 22, after Snowden's try had given them the momentum.
He admittedly thought they were going to get there.
“We knew it was going to go 80. Just a little bit frustrated with that first 25. We really shot ourselves in the foot but it was good to come back and put the heat on them in the last 40. Just a shame we fell a little bit short,” he said.
He linked up with the Rising after being signed to the Rebels Extended Playing Squad.
“It really came out of nowhere. I was just studying at uni and they threw me a lifeline and I've absolutely loved every minute of it,” he said.
