Though he's more than 17,000km from Sydney, Scott Fardy still feels at home.
Like most others, the Leinster forward - in his Dublin apartment with his wife and two-year-old son - is observing stay at home guidelines during the Covid-19 emergency.
"We were talking about it the other day, even if I was back in Australia I couldn’t visit many family and friends, they have gone into similar lockdown levels as Ireland has now," says Fardy, an ambassador for the Tackle Your Feelings campaign.
"There’d be no point being in Australia, you could be lonely anyway. In a way, this is the best place for us to be at the moment. If we went back to Australia we’d have to spend two weeks in a hotel with a two-year-old which is not something we want to do so.
"We’re happy here - we’ve made our home here - this is home for us at the moment. We’re coming on three years nearly, three years in July, so we’re really happy here at the moment."
The 39-cap Australian international stays in touch with his family - members of which are based around the world - through video calls.
I’ve got brothers in the US as well so we had a family zoom call the other day. My sister organised that all so it wasn’t too bad - I didn’t have to organise anything. A good sister always organises everything for you anyway.
I stay in contact with my mum and dad and make sure they’re not going out anywhere cause they’re both over 70. I keep having to treat them like I’m the parent at the moment - telling them to stay at home as much as I can. It’s been really difficult cause mum’s fighting me every time. There’s four kids in the family all saying the same thing but they still don’t listen to us.
It will be several weeks, maybe even months, until teams can resume collective training. The 35-year-old is keeping in shape as best he can.
"It’s actually really good not going to the gym, cause I hate the gym," he says, "the boys will tell you that at Leinster that I usually just walk around talking to the guys in the gym and not doing much anyway so.
"It suits me to do a little bit of weights here on the deck here of my apartment and otherwise just go for runs at the moment.
"Then we do a Pilates class as well a few times a week with Platinum Pilates here in Clonskeagh. Melena, she takes us on a few classes and a few guys have jumped in, it's kind of keeping us moving as much as we can.
"I just do my exercise first thing in the morning. As soon as I get out of bed I exercise and kind of knock that off straight away.
"For me personally, when I exercise straight away in the morning, I won’t exercise during the day. So that’s big for me just to get out and do my exercise early when no-one’s around and then come back and then start the day.
"We have got a little bit of instruction going, not too rigid but to keep to our structure and go to bed the same time as we usually would during the week.
"In some ways, kids help that because he goes to bed at 7pm. We’re used to that and that structure is there every day. I think for the younger guys that would really be hard if you don’t have kids and don’t have that structure in a way."
Though it's not an ideal situation for a professional rugby player, he knows there are others in far tougher ones.
"There’s people who are going through some pretty horrific things at the moment and really suffering.
"I see a lot of people on the news that can't bury their loved ones and things like that. It’s an awful situation and you look at the medical teams working so hard. They’re working long hours and put themselves in danger every day.
"You know, I think staying at home doesn’t sound too bad to them so hats off to those people and the work they’re doing."
Leinster Rugby Player, Scott Fardy was speaking on behalf of Rugby Players Ireland and urging people to stay safe and look after each another during this period of uncertainty.
Rugby Players Ireland has a number of resources in place for rugby players and the general public to support mental wellbeing including the Tackle Your Feelings App, supported by Zurich and funded by the Z Zurich Foundation and is free to download through the Apple and Google Play App stores.
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
