IT was enough to lure the likes of Sonny Bill Williams and Quade Cooper across from the 15-man form of the game, but the Olympics have always been the dream for Jesse Parahi.
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Enough for the 31-tournament veteran of the Australian Rugby Sevens team to turn his back on a potentially lucrative NRL career with Wests Tigers to return to the ARU fold for a final tilt at Rio selection.
Having been part of the bronze medal-winning Commonwealth Games team and member of the team that qualifed through Oceania tournament last season, Parahi said the lure of Olympics proved too great.
“It was a really big decision to make and a few people were a bit shocked with my decision [to leave] in an Olympic year,” Parahi said at the launch of the Viva 7s tournament at UOW.
“It just didn’t end up being for me and I really wanted to have another crack at the Olympics. It’s still the pinnacle of sport.
“When I left I probably never really let go of Sevens, I was up all hours of the night watching the tournaments.
“I’ve been here five or six years now so they’re all my best mates and it really felt like coming home. It’s something really close to my heart and when the opportunity came up to come back it just felt right.”
While he’d already felt the tug back to the sport in which he made his name, Parahi said an invitation from current coach Andy Friend to present the jerseys at the Sydney Sevens in February completely re-stoked fire.
“I got asked to do the jersey presentation for the boys before that tournament and I didn’t know how I’d feel about it,” Parahi said.
“That’s obviously a massive honour and I was never going to turn that down but I knew it would be tough for me. I got pretty emotional in that speech and Friendy sort of joked about me coming back and that planted the seed a little bit.
“Since I’ve been gone he came in as a new coach and I wasn’t sure if he’d want me back but he showed some interest and that got me thinking along those lines as well.”
A huge injury toll that saw 10 players unavailable for the most recent World Series event in Singapore has seen Friend give plenty of players an opportunity to press their claims for Rio selection.
Despite missing bulk of the World Series season, Parahi is confident he can use the remaining two events in England and France to push a strong claim.
“Friendy’s basically said I have as good a chance as anyone. He said he’s going to pick the best team and whoever those guys are they’ll be going,” Parahi said.
“Just because I was here for such a long time before doesn’t mean I’m a shoo-in and just because I left doesn’t mean that it’s going to be harder for me.
“Everyone’s got the opportunity and it’s going to be the guys who are in form will be going.
“The boys have come along way since I last played which is only about five months. They’re playing some really good footy and I’ve going to have to do a bit of catching up, but hopefully I can slot myself back in over these next two tournaments.”
As the for the team’s gold medal chances, Parahi said thee Thunderbolts are “going big.”
“You don’t set goals you think you can achieve you’ve got to go big,” he said.
“We’ve got a great crop of players here and we’re looking for gold.”