Noah Perelini grew up with a world-famous rugby player for a father but the teenager admits he hated the sport for years.
The 15-year-old has since changed his viewpoint and is now dreaming of following in his dad Apollo’s footsteps by becoming a professional.
Perelini heads to his native New Zealand this week to take up a scholarship at the prestigious King’s College in Auckland – a school that has produced former All Blacks Ali Williams, Ian Kirkpatrick and Pita Alatini.
He will never forget, however, the long and boring Friday nights spent at Super League giants St Helens’ Knowsley Road ground as a child watching Apollo senior barrelling through opponents and delivering the bone-crunching tackles that made him famous.
“He’s had the biggest impact on me playing rugby but when I was younger and dad played for Saints I was actually never into the sport,” said the talented No8 of his dad who was a dual code star, bursting onto
“I hated rugby because I would go to the games on a Friday evening every week. You’d stay until really
late and I was really fed up of it. It was a chore to go to the games. People would always ask me why I didn’t like rugby.”
“I never got into it as a kid. My dad wanted me and my brother to play rugby so we eventually enrolled at a local club called Liverpool St Helens and I started to really enjoy it.”
The youngster was 11 when he moved to Dubai four years ago and he credits the decision to join his father, who had taken the director of sport position at Repton School, with putting him on the path to the highly-regarded Auckland A1 1st XV Competition.
It is aired on television and a derby game between King’s and Auckland Grammar School recently drew a crowd of 4,500 people.
“I was an okay player, pretty average, but it was when we moved to Dubai and dad started coaching me that it began to click,” said Perelini, who had originally been heading to the UK to pursue a school scholarship.
“Up until then I had standard coaching from friends’ dads that ran the team. As soon as I moved to Dubai and started at dad’s academy (Apollo Perelini Rugby Skills Academy) and did one-on-one training, he started to exploit my talent. Now it’s a case of building on that.”
Although he might carry the weight of a famous surname in the rugby world, trying to make his own name in the game is not something that daunts him.
“In a way it’s daunting because there’s an expectation on me with dad’s legacy but to be honest it doesn’t really put as much pressure on me as people think,” said Perelini.
“I want to be my own player. I want to be Noah Perelini. Having dad’s influence on me is a big thing to carry but I think it helps more than anything. It’s not a burden, it’s something I embrace.”
