It’s not every day that a story about a high school rugby game, played over a decade ago at Brisbane’s St Joseph’s Nudgee College, captures the attention of Hollywood stars Dwayne Johnson and Adam Sandler. Yet, this tale, recounted by Brisbane-born actor Jacob Elordi, has done just that, as he shared in a recent roundtable interview for The Hollywood Reporter. The video has since been viewed more than five million times.
Elordi, now 28, recalls the pivotal moment when he broke his back playing rugby at the prestigious sporting school, a moment that inadvertently set him on the path to an acting career. “The schools that I went to, and the environment that I was in, [was] sort of sports heavy, rugby oriented, you’re not really a person unless you play sport,” Elordi explained. “But then I broke my back when I was 16.”
The Injury That Changed Everything
During the interview, a concerned Johnson, who made an early career out of professional wrestling, asked if the injury occurred during a game. While it did, Elordi attributed the injury to off-field activities, particularly lifting heavy weights “too early” and “squatting wrong.” The pressure from his growing body began fracturing the bones in his back. Unbeknownst to him, a routine tackle was all it took to break the bone entirely, shattering his dreams of a rugby career.
Injuries are not uncommon among young rugby league and union players. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that nearly a quarter of a million Australians aged 15 and over played rugby in 2023–24. Of an estimated 4,600 hospitalizations during that period, players aged 15-19 were most likely to be hurt. Across all ages, the most injured body parts were the hip and lower limb, head and neck, and shoulder and upper limb, while overexertion accounted for about 335 cases.
“The schools that I went to, and the environment that I was in, [was] sort of sports heavy, rugby oriented, you’re not really a person unless you play sport.” — Jacob Elordi
Strength Training: A Double-Edged Sword
Strength training was Elordi’s eventual undoing, but when managed correctly and integrated into a holistic program, it can reduce the risk of injury. There is even evidence to suggest it can improve the bone health of adolescents. However, the line between sculpting a formidable young athlete and provoking injury is thin.
Former rugby union player and sports scientist James Ambrosini has spent nearly 20 years scrutinizing that question, shaping it into a program for young athletes. Like Elordi, he spent his teenage years playing rugby in Brisbane and faced his own series of injuries.
Ambrosini had just made the Queensland under 15s team and was looking to move from St Laurence’s College to Nudgee when he broke his ankle at school camp. “The camp instructor tackled me from behind after an intercept and broke the growth plate at my ankle,” he said. “I didn’t even know it was broken at the time.”
The injury healed, and Ambrosini enjoyed a successful career, playing for the Brumbies Academy and making the Australian under 20s before moving overseas to play for Benetton Treviso and other international teams. However, his run of injuries continued, including breaking his hand four times and dislocating his shoulder.
“Being a young boy, I wasn’t really fully mature enough to handle the stress mentally and physically.” — James Ambrosini
Building a Safer Path for Young Athletes
Ambrosini eventually applied his career learnings into founding High Performance SASS Academy, which helps young athletes hone their skills on and off the field. This includes strength training, but under a tight purview. “The main focus with young athletes, before [they lift] too heavy too young, is to get the technique down pat before you put any sort of weight on your back or hold any sort of weight,” he said.
He emphasizes building a stable base through core and unilateral strength and learning to understand one’s body through mobility and flexibility for at least four to eight weeks before moving into building muscle mass. The temptation to add muscle to Elordi’s nearly two-meter tall frame would have been understandable, but it required patience.
“A common theme in young athletes is impatience and wanting their shot today. And they think what they see on Instagram, especially now, is what they should be doing, but their bodies are still developing.” — James Ambrosini
As Elordi’s story highlights, the pressures of sports culture can lead young athletes to push their bodies beyond safe limits. The balance between ambition and safety remains a crucial conversation in sports training, one that experts like Ambrosini continue to navigate in their efforts to protect and guide the next generation.
