In a debut to remember, Kangaroo #842 Campbell Graham scored a hat-trick to help Australia to an 84-0 win against Pool B opponents Scotland.
And while his father Stewart – who hails from Glasgow – may have had mixed emotions while watching his son cross the line as the Kangaroos ran in 15 in total, there was no question of that from Graham himself, despite having initially thought he’d potentially be lining up for the Bravehearts in this year’s Rugby League World Cup.
“It’s funny how it worked out, I am very grateful for the call up to Australia; and how it all worked out was quite funny and the stage was set, but I knew I had a job to do for Australia and that was my focus going into (it),” Graham said.
“There was a bit of talk about there was an opportunity to play for Scotland, but playing for Australia is the pinnacle for me, there is no one I would rather represent … that’s where my heart’s at, my allegiances are here and I want to hold on to this jersey as long as I can and keep putting in performances and proving to myself and to Mal (Meninga) that I deserve to be here.
“(My dad) had his Aussie jersey on after halftime, so he’s good!”
Campbell Graham grabs a hat-trick on debut
The stage was indeed set for Graham to have a great game, with the Kangaroos taking on Scotland at Coventry Building Society Arena where Graham’s mother Lisa, who is from Coventry, was also in the crowd to support, as were plenty of his extended family who he was thrilled to be meeting for the first time.
“It was pretty emotional, a lot of (family) I haven’t seen since I was two years old, so it was pretty weird, but it was really cool to see the support coming out for me,” Graham said.
“I had nieces that I had never met before and they were over the moon seeing me as well, so it was great, very humbling to see the support all the way over here and some of them drove seven hours, people flew from Italy and all that kind of thing, so it’s pretty cool very humbling to see the support.
“(To) be able to represent them and come away with the win the way we did and put on a performance was extra special, but they support me regardless, so as I said, very humbling.”
As for the emotion of stepping up to play for Australia, who were unrelenting against the Bravehearts and made 2310 running metres to 673, Graham said it was yet to fully sink in. However, having now had a taste of playing for the Kangaroos, he was determined to add to his match tally despite “healthy competition” for places.
Graham's family ties in sparkling debut
The Souths Sydney Rabbitohs star also said he knew both himself and the whole team would have to improve even more as the tournament progressed.
“It’s pretty hard to put into words, obviously a great performance from the boys all-round, pretty pleasing to keep them to nil as well, I thought we definitely took a step in the right direction tonight as to how we want to play for the rest of the tournament,” Graham said.
“For me, it’s just about any opportunity I get, to take it with both hands.
“I think we will have to be better … it’s hard to critique tonight with an 80+ nil performance, we know when we are coming against the likes of New Zealand, England, that’s where we’ll definitely be able to see where we are at.
“But again, it’s about building, I think we did that tonight, I think we built on our performance against Fiji.
“We have to get back in and review things and see what we did well tonight and little areas we can clean up and build again next week.”
Australia will face Italy in their final pool match, before taking on either Lebanon on Ireland in the quarter-finals.
