Long journey for Lewis

FORMER Sydney Rooster and current Northern Pride back Bernard Lewis says playing for the Papua New Guinea Kumuls is one of his biggest achievements in rugby league.
“Definitely, playing for PNG, that was one of the highlights (of my career),” said Lewis, who played against Samoa and was picked for the Kumuls’ Rugby League World Cup Nines squad last year.
“The first time I was selected for PNG, I was so excited.
“I was so proud to represent my country and my family. I rang my parents straight away and I cried on the phone to them. I was so happy.
“I was so happy because ever since I was young, I wanted to represent PNG. So when I got the call-up, I was so happy and I tried to do my best for everyone.
“I knew Rhyse Martin and James Segeyaro and Kyle Laybutt, those were the only boys I knew in the team. But in the first day of camp, I bonded straight away with everyone.
“We were talking about it, all the support, and it’s just different, you can just feel it, it’s different.
“Knowing that you are carrying that many people with you on your back when you are playing, it makes you play a lot harder.”
Meanwhile, Lewis says he can’t wait until he can play footy again, when he can link up on the field with his young cousin Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
The 22-year-old, a North Queensland-raised star of the game lured “home” by the Pride before the Intrust Super Cup season, was joined at the club by the superstar-in-waiting.
Tabuai-Fidow was one of the North Queensland Cowboys players assigned to play with the Cairns club this year.
Speaking before the decision was made in the interests of health and safety to call off the season, Lewis said it would be great for his family to be able to support both of them playing in the one team.
“It was cool. He didn’t play round one because he hurt his hamstring,” he said.
“So hopefully when everything dies down and footy gets better, we can play together.
“That will be my first time playing with him.
“(It) will be good for the family to see us both. I’m back home. I was excited moving back, especially because I haven’t played in front of my family before.
“None of my family came to watch any of my Roosters games when I was in Sydney, so it was tough. But now I am here, they can come and watch me. I am happy about that.”
Lewis was proud of the way his cousin had made his mark on the rugby league landscape, and like the rest of us, thoroughly enjoyed seeing him star at the National Rugby League Nines held in Perth earlier this year.
Lewis himself is no stranger to lighting up that tournament himself, having scored a memorable length-of-the-field try in 2017 to help the Roosters win their semifinal against the Melbourne Storm and earn their place in the final.
“I was watching him and I was telling him after every game ‘you are killing it bro. Keep it up.’,” Lewis said.
On his own eye-catching try, Lewis said all he was thinking was ‘try and pin the ears back and run the fastest’, but admitted he thought his younger cousin would come out on top if they did take part in foot race.
“Oh, probably him, even in my prime, he is pretty quick. I reckon him to be honest,” Lewis said.
Lewis, like all players across the Queensland Rugby’s statewide competition, is doing what he can at home to stay fit and active in preparation for next year.
It has been quite a journey for the Cairns Kangaroos junior who has had to overcome his fair share of injury setbacks.
“I was upset, I had a good start of the year that year with the nines (2017) and after that, I had my first NRL trial game and went pretty well in that, scored a try,” Lewis said.
“Then the week after, I was supposed to play in the Manly trial and that’s when I did my anterior cruciate ligament right at the start of the season when everything was getting good, and it felt like everything went downhill from there.
“I got my surgery straight away and then moved back and it was hard because in round one, Daniel Tupou hurt his pectoral muscle and he was out for like 10 weeks and I did think that could have been me moving in straight away playing, and it was definitely hard.
“And then, when I did my knee, I never thought that … from the start that I would be able to walk properly again, it was the longest process.”
However, he worked his way back to fitness and last year, he achieved a lifelong dream when he got called up to represent the Kumuls. – QRL