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Looking back, my whole life seems so surreal. I didn't just turn up on the doorstep playing rugby; I had to go through a whole lot of things to get there.

One afternoon when I was 9, my dad told me I'd be skipping school the next day. Then we drove 12 hours from Melbourne to Sydney for the Centenary Test, a once-in-a-lifetime commemorative cricket match. It was great fun - especially for a kid who was a massive sports fan.

School was great. There were no boys there, which didn't really bother me at the time because I had two brothers, so I was quite pleased not to spend any more time with boys.

Before there was any chance to go to England, I changed schools, and it was rugby from there on in.

Rugby is great. The players don't wear helmets or padding; they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that.

When things could've gone really bad, rugby caught my interest and I really stuck with it. The sport brought me, maybe off the streets where we'd be fighting, into putting in a good effort in the rugby field where you're kind of rewarded for that rough behaviour instead of in trouble with the law.

The time I've spent in professional Premiership club rugby has been invaluable.

The reception and the welcome home was quite overwhelming but an indication of how much the Welsh people valued my winning in the Olympics - it was a great memory.

My favorite memory from school was going to football games with my friends. We always had so much spirit and dressed up to go to the games, even though our team was pretty bad.

Honestly, I was only rested in rugby football; all my friends were boys, and I definitely didn't want to go on stage, but I just did it to keep everyone happy. I did some singing, dancing like they liked, but it wasn't my thing at all.