PAT PELLEGRINI

From Sevenoaks to Tonga, this fly-half has seen the game's many layers

- Joe Harvey

IN MID-JUNE, Coventry fly-half Pat Pellegrini was called up to Tonga’s 35-man squad for the July Internationals.

This summer, the 24-year-old’s rugby will be played alongside the world-beating talents of Malakai Fekitoa, Charles Piutau and Israel Folau, with a place in the Pacific Islanders’ squad for the World Cup firmly in mind.

Pellegrini’s path to Test rugby has been different to most. Just two years ago the playmaker was preparing for a debut season in the northern hemisphere with Sevenoaks in London & South East Premier – the fifth tier of English club rugby.

Arriving from Australia with a handful of Shute Shield appearances for West Harbour, Pellegrini made an impression in Kent, with his no-holds-barred style and by coaching the minis and juniors. Soon enough he was in Tonga camp ahead of an autumn encounter with Scotland.

“I can’t say I’ve experienced it often,” Adam Bowman, director of rugby at Sevenoaks, says of the call-up. “As a club we are about supporting people who want to play high levels of rugby and what a great thing for someone to be able to do. He had to do it.”

By the end of the 2021-22 season, Pellegrini had helped the Kent club to promotion and was named Player of the Year.