 Roache with the Australia Sevens team in 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Dietrich Peter Roache | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 6 July 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 92 kg (203 lb; 14 st 7 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Patrician Brothers' College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dietrich Peter Roache (born 6 July 2001) is an Australian professional rugby union player who plays as a wing for Shute Shield club Western Sydney Two Blues and the Australia national sevens team. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Born of Samoan descent from his father, [5] Roache initially played rugby league for his school, Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield. [6] Whilst there, he was a part of the Patrician Brothers rugby league team that won the NRL Schoolboy Cup. [7] Roache is a Roman Catholic. [8]
Though his father and uncle played rugby for the former Parramatta Two Blues, Roache did not start playing club rugby until 2018. [6] This came after getting a free ticket to the Sydney Sevens in 2018. [5] He gained a reputation as a fast player, being able to run a time of 4.59 seconds over 40 metres. This matched the time of Trae Williams who missed selection for the Australian Olympic team for the 2020 Olympic Games as a result. [9] He was selected for the New South Wales Waratahs' Junior under-18 team and part of their development programme. [10] In 2019, he played for Australia at the World Rugby School Sevens and a year later was signed by Rugby Australia to their sevens programme. [11]
In 2021, when he was selected for the Australia national rugby sevens team for their 2020 Olympics rugby sevens tournament, [5] he was the youngest member of the team and was given responsibility for taking care of the team's mascot Wally. [12] This followed on from Henry Hutchison at the 2016 Summer Olympics where Wally was kidnapped by players from the Sweden women's national football team for 24 hours. [6]
Roache competed for Australia at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town. [13] [14] In 2024, He was named in the Australian sevens team for the Summer Olympics in Paris. [15] [16] [17]
