Eric Rush’s tales of gut-busting training sessions with Sir Gordon Tietjens would be enough to put most people off the game of sevens.
For his son, though, it proved an inspiration.
And so, 16 years after his famous father retired from the sport, Brady Rush is now looking to carry on the family legacy, and even add to it, after earning a full-time professional deal with the All Blacks Sevens.
The 21-year-old was announced on Friday as one of two (along with Moses Leo) new contracted players for 2021, and he’s crediting his old man’s hard-edged training methods for his swift elevation into the national ranks.
The second-youngest of five (four boys) in the family, Brady told Stuff that his father had spent plenty of time teaching him the ropes, particularly the importance of fitness, with a few gnarly stories from years gone by.
“It sounded pretty hard out. Nah it probably excited me, to be honest,” Rush said.
“He’s always trained me and my brothers. He’s kind of ingrained in us the work ethic to train at this level and I’m pretty grateful for that. But he’s just dad, and I guess any dad would push their kids to be the best they can.”
Rush was informed of his call-up soon before Christmas, and the news quickly got even better for him, with Eric – who owns New World Regent in Whangārei – then opting not to call on him for annual supermarket duty at the shop’s busiest time of year, as dad knew the importance of his boy immediately hitting the roads.
“It’s probably the first summer he’s given us off to actually train,” Rush said. “He usually has us there stacking some shelves or pushing some trolleys.
“So I was pretty stoked actually, it was probably a double present, got the contract and got the summer off.”