Cummins puts blood before glory
Western Force winger Nick Cummins kept a long-standing promise and put family first after being told he had won the prestigious Rugby Union Players' Association Medal for Excellence.
Cummins was voted Australian rugby's players' player for 2013 for his blistering Wallabies Spring tour form, his charity work, particularly with Cystic Fibrosis Australia, the Cancer Council and Ronald McDonald House, and his perseverance after an injury-plagued Super Rugby season.
The award was accepted yesterday by his father Mark because Cummins was driving to Brisbane to fulfil a long-standing promise and give his youngest brother Joe, 17, who has cystic fibrosis, his well-used ute called "The Bulldog" as a Christmas present.
In typical Cummins style he did not ring his father until Tuesday.
"He rang me and said there was a free feed on in Sydney if I was keen. That's exactly what he said," Mark Cummins said.
"He would love to have been there. It is a pinnacle of his career but he had made the promise to Joe. That's the way he is.
"I mentioned at the presentation how proud Nick was to receive the medal, proud that it was a vote by his peers that he knocks heads with, and you can't get better than that.
"Nick also does a lot of work in the background that nobody really hears about."
The self-titled "honey badger" is a firm Force favourite and while injury restricted him to just six games in the 2013 Super season, he went on to star on the Wallabies' European tour.
He is the fourth consecutive Force player to win the award following former teammates Nathan Sharpe in 2012 and 2011 and David Pocock in 2010. Sharpe also won it in 2002 and 2005 while former Force hooker Brendan Cannon took out the 2003 medal.
All Australia's Super Rugby players vote on the honour.
Michael Hooper, favourite to add the award to his John Eales Medal and NSW and Australian Super Rugby player of the year awards, Israel Folau and Wallabies playmaker Christian Leali'ifano were the other finalists.
Folau was named RUPA's Newcomer of the Year and the People's Choice Player of the Year.
·WA players Kellie Gibson and Alison Kimberley have been chosen for the Australian women seven's training squad for next year's Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
