After years of being the “curse”, former Wallaby turned Tongan international Adam Coleman will finally get the chance of playing for some silverware.
The 32-year-old will start in the second-row for Bordeaux in Saturday’s (5:05am AEST) French Top 14 final against Richie Arnold’s Toulouse in Marseille.
When he takes the field, it will continue the Hobart-born lock’s remarkable career where he has played at consecutive World Cups for two different nations, and been forced to move from two clubs after being booted out of top-tier competitions in Australia and England. A third side of his, the Rebels, have also been chopped.
“When I was at the Force, the Western Force got cut from Super Rugby so then I had to go to the Rebels, and then I go to the Rebels for two years then I got an awesome opportunity in London and then London Irish go into administration,” Coleman tells The Roar.
“I then have to scramble to find a job and now I’m in France, so kind of like two forced moves that I didn’t really have an option.
“I might be the curse.”
Adam Coleman played for London Irish before he was forced to move. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
Coleman’s laugh is as big as his hulking 204cm, 122kg frame.
While Coleman has often been tagged an enforcer, the son of former Tongan flanker Pau’u Afeaki is merely a gentle giant off the field with his three young children.
He’s rushed back home in Bordeaux from a school fair with his three children under the age of five, with one already fast asleep, another fighting shut eye and a third wide awake.
Even still, he finds the time to chat about his roller-coaster career, which saw him join Bordeaux last year after London Irish, the same English club that new Reds coach Les Kiss came from, fell into administration.
Coleman had just a month to prepare for crossing the English Channel, but he was helped by landing in the same city as former Wallaby and Waratahs Super Rugby winner Kane Douglas, whose peroxide blonde hair now sees him stand out like a sore thumb in a city obsessed by rugby.
Before getting into the nitty and gritty of rugby in France, he issues a word of caution.
“In Bordeaux, mate, it’s chocolatine. Pain au chocolate is what they say in Paris,” Coleman cautions. “There’s a bit of a rivalry there.”
So the French is going well?
“I’m getting by at the moment,” he quips.
“I’m doing three lessons a week now off my own back just because my kids are learning French really quickly, and it’s going to get to a stage soon where I won’t be able to help them with the homework. They’re flying.
“My rugby French is getting there, it’s probably better than my conversational French. Rugby’s rugby.
“That said, my first French meeting I was blown away. I had a month turnaround where I knew I was going to go. I landed in a team meeting and I was a bit out of my depth here.”
Former Wallabies Richie Arnold and Adam Coleman will go head-to-head in the French Top 14 final. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
After five years abroad, Coleman’s somewhat of a forgotten commodity in Australian rugby.
But Eddie Jones knew of him, having seen the hard-hitting Wallaby play in the English Premiership – not that he was always on the field, given the red cards he was shown.
“When I left Oz, I knew what I was giving up and I told myself that I have to let it be and whatever will happen, will happen,” he said.
“Towards early last year, there was some dialogue between Eddie and me and then I dislocated my shoulder in February.
“That kind of put that to bed and then I was like, ‘Right I can just fully focus on Tonga now and playing for Tonga.’
“That was another experience in itself.”
But more on that later.
While Coleman left Australian rugby on a huge deal to sign with London Irish, it wasn’t the only factor in his decision.
With one child on the way, the former Rebels captain also recognised the need to spend more time with his family.
Not playing international rugby, nor travelling between South America and Africa, as well as Japan and New Zealand, in Super Rugby would help that.
“It was still one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever made in my career is to leave Australia because it’s everything I always wanted to play for,” he said.
“But there was so much opportunity for my family financially to go to London.
“In terms of like the World Cup year in Australia, you’re home for maybe six months of the year and you’re away for the rest with camps and Super Rugby tours and then the Championship or however it went. You’re away quite a lot in Australia.
“I think in London we were away maybe 18 days.
“You’re either bussing the day of the game, or you’re flying to the destination the night before and you’re back either game-day or the day after the game, so it makes it easier for my fiancée and the kids. I’m not away a lot.”
Adam Coleman said leaving Australian rugby was tough but made sense for financial and family reasons. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
It’s an interesting insight into the life of an Australian professional rugby player, with travel and the international-nature of the game often sold to convince youngsters to choose the code over others.
Nor did Coleman have universal love in Australia, with glittering, fleet-footed backs and prized flankers often gaining the headlines instead.
Up north, however, it’s a different matter.
“Because my game is based around some physicality and set-piece, it was an easier transition going to London and here than I anticipated because it’s a natural fit,” he said.
“I didn’t really have to adapt too much. I quite enjoy the maul contact, the bigger boys running around.
“In Super Rugby, they’re so quick, you’re only making like 10-15 tackles a game. Over here you can make 25 tackles on average; it’s a battle of attrition over here rather than putting your running shoes on and running like 6-7k a game.”
Add to the fact that most games in France are packed houses, it’s an easy sell playing in France.
“The fans over here are something else,” he said.
“When you arrive on the bus, flares are going off and you’re walking through this tunnel and everyone’s trying to grab you. You’re getting pushed around a bit before the game.
“It’s such a good atmosphere to play over here.”
Coleman will get another unique taste of that when he starts against Toulouse, the European champions who are trying to claim yet another double and have arguably the best player in the world in Antoine Dupont.
Although Toulouse are favourites, Coleman, who is one of three Australians in the matchday squad, with Douglas and Pete Samu to come off the bench, is glowing about his side after upsetting Stade Francais last weekend.
“Some of our backs are incredible players,” he said.
“That young Louis Bielle-Biarrey, he’s only 21 and he made two try-saving tackles over back-to-back weeks.
“He’s run them down from like 40 metres run them down and then held them up on the try line. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before in any game.
“He’s just a young talented kid who just loves rugby and he’s probably what like 80 kilos dripping wet, he just throws his body around and he’s so quick.
“Then we’ve got Matthieu Jalibert, who’s a very good 10, Damian’s [Penaud] on the wing. We’re quite lucky with our backline.”
Should Bordeaux come out on top for the first time, it will cap an incredible year that also saw Coleman line-up for Tonga in the 2023 World Cup.
It was something Coleman never thought would happen.
“When I’d made the decision [to leave Australia], it wasn’t even allowed then [to play for another country],” he said. “The rule changed a few years ago.
“It was like a bonus that I can actually test myself now against the best again.
“Because my old man played for Tonga, now I’ve had that ability to represent both sides of my family and that’s quite special.
“To do it for myself and my mum, but to do it for something bigger and my Tongan family and follow my dad’s footsteps, that was cool.
“It’s quite a different feeling playing for Tonga than Australia.”
Tongan lock Adam Coleman in action against against South Africa at Stade Velodrome on October 01, 2023 in Marseille. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Undoubtedly, with Coleman switching from Michael Cheika’s Wallabies to the hymns of Kefu’s Tongan side.
“It was an unbelievable experience to just to get back in touch with my Tongan side and to learn more about my Tongan culture,” he said.
“We were singing hymns a lot, there’s a lot of prayers before meetings or in the morning, but what stood out was just how connected the boys were and how connected the team was.
“The team isn’t where it should be but the boys just kept going and we found a way. There was always a really good attitude.
“We might not have been getting x, y and z, but everyone would say, ‘look at what we do have’ and that gratefulness just to be to be able to be there and playing rugby, it puts a lot of things into perspective.”
So will Coleman return to Australia when the times comes to hang up the boots?
“I’m definitely coming back to Oz to live,” he chuckles.
“For my family, I had a fantastic childhood growing up in Australia and I want that for my kids. The move here, it’s short-term in the grand scheme of things.
“I’ll probably finish up in Perth. I met Tonia in Perth. But you never know. But I’ve got to get the Pommy accent out of my daughter.”