Hadley Tonga's long injury-filled road to Australia Sevens debut

Hadley Tonga may be the only person in Rugby history to wear 71 on his back, but the number has an important meaning.

“I want to remember how far I’ve come,” he told rugby.com.au from Perth.

Tonga will make his long-awaited debut for Australia in Perth after 71 weeks on the sidelines with injury.

The teenage prodigy was signed by the program straight out of high school with the highlight reel to back up the hype given his rapid speed.

However, a hamstring strain and ‘turf toe’ kept pushing his debut inches out of gasps.

The flyer kept reaggravating injuries before big moments including the Olympics before finally being named to debut on the weekend.

“It means a lot. Despite all these injuries I've had, it's felt like a big weight off my shoulders,” Tonga admits.

“…It's been a big goal for me to debut on home soil. Especially when, after I'd done my recent injury on my hamstring, I set a clear goal that I'm going to do whatever it takes to debut for Perth.

“This team is like the best I've ever had, especially through all my injuries, they've helped me through it. They didn't exclude me out of anything, especially when they were overseas I still got involved with them somehow.”

For Tonga, the long stint on the sidelines was the first real setback he had in his career and it took a major toll on him physically and mentally.

“I did have like a mental phase where I was having mental problems, which thankfully Rugby Australia realised that and then they gave me a sports psychologist to help me out through that process," he explained.

“They had a sign in our locker room saying ‘ if you're not mentally right, reach out’ and I just took that as a sign really. 

“It was a great breakthrough. I probably would have been somewhere else had that not happened.”

These conversations have been massive for Tonga’s confidence to get back to full speed given the injuries.

Tonga was clocked at 10.84 for the 100m when in year 11 and is confident there are no lingering issues from his past setbacks.

“Honestly, it goes back to mental confidence. Physically I’m all there strength and power wise but it just all mental from here,” he said.

“I’m confident my speed is back up to date.”