The inside story into Darby Lancaster's debut and his former club's forfeit to watch him play

Published in July 2024 on wwos.com.au

As Darby Lancaster approached the sideline after his Wallabies debut, a 40-strong contingent of his closest friends cheered.

Before reaching the stand, Lancaster's hand went up.

For the Kempsey Cannonballs, that's the universal signal to start belting out their team song, All Got Class.

And belt it out they did.

A select few struggled to hold back tears, overawed by the emotion surrounding the call to arms.

The debutant admits it was all natural.

"I just heard them all start to yell, I've sung that song a fair few times in my life so I knew what they were trying to do and straight away I put my hand up and ripped into singing the song," Lancaster told Wide World of Sports.

"I haven't sung it for a while, it was really special. Mum told me later that dad was crying during it. It was pretty cool and a special moment to be able to sing that at Allianz after debuting."

A special moment indeed considering the sacrifice the Cannonballs made.

In between Kempsey and Crescent Head sits the Ian Walton Rugby Park. It's the home of the Cannonballs but at the usual 3:15pm kick off time on Saturday, it was bare.

That's because most of that side were sitting in the stands at Allianz Stadium, watching the club's first Wallaby.

At first it was thought only a few would be missing but as momentum grew, those numbers began to rise.

When an attempt to reschedule didn't work out, the club made the tough decision to forfeit.

"It didn't really cross our mind to say to guys 'you can't go' or anything like that," Kempsey co-coach Jared Fuller told WWOS.

"Darby's a fantastic junior of the club, he's got two brothers that played all their juniors at the club. His father James was instrumental in the development of our junior program, as a family they've contributed a significant amount to the Cannonballs, all of them.

"James is a life member as well so from our point of view there was never a consideration about us not going.

"Everyone in the club, even those that didn't attend, the understanding was there that while not playing on Saturday in first grade was disappointing there was something more important."

Lancaster knew where they were too.

The voices were all familiar and the yelling reached his ears. When it came to game time though, he admits he couldn't even hear himself.

So when he stripped the ball in the 37th minute and almost ran away to score, he was just "trying to run as fast as I could".

Once full time hit, the winger had one spot in the stands he'd be running towards.

The commitment from his friends and family is what makes the club "so special".

"It's such a tight knit and caring group, I've obviously been around it for so long ... it was just all about getting down to Sydney to watch me play which is so humbling and so awesome to see and feel that support from them," Lancaster said.

The last time the 21-year-old had pulled on the Cannonballs jersey was an under 16s grand final.

He went out a winner, but unfortunately spent 15 months out of the game due to an ACL injury.

The long recovery didn't stop his rapid rise into a gold jersey though, and it was a debut that had been a dream "for a long time".

"I'm still on top of the world. It was the experience of a lifetime debuting for the Wallabies. I'm so grateful I got the opportunity and been buzzing ever since," he said.

Now with a break for the Wallabies, it's an easy guess where the new Australian representative will spend his time.

Back on the mid-north coast, spending time with his family and reversing the roles from Saturday, this time watching his mates play for Kempsey.

Fuller explained the moment of Lancaster singing All Got Class was simply "surreal".

"We were just so proud," he said.

"You get to the end of the game and everyone had probably been waiting for that point where we'd get to see him. For him to come over and sing the song with everyone was fantastic, everyone in the club is exceptionally proud.

"Being good at rugby is one thing but much more importantly is he's a tremendous young man, he's extremely humble.

"He comes from a really good family who've kept him grounded and so it's more than just the club getting a Wallaby. It's that but also everyone's happiness that he's such a wonderful human being."