David Pocock talking with a group of conservation farming workers on a recent trip to Nkayi, ZimbabweUnforgettable ... Pocock on a recent trip to Nyaki, an area of concern for his and Luke O'Keefe's charity, EightyTwenty Vision.
Most know him as a rugby star but David Pocock's deepest passions have been forged by an innate sense of justice, writes David Sygall.


David Pocock's autobiography, Openside, is published by New Holland

NEXT Saturday, as day two of the Labor Party's national conference winds up, David Pocock will be a world away, preparing to play for the Wallabies in a Test match in Wales. But the distance won't diminish his interest in the party's resolution on same-sex marriage.
It's an unusual area of concern for a rugby player. But it taps into Pocock's sense of social justice, a world view built on the southern African concept of Ubuntu: the belief true humanity is achieved through mutual respect and interconnectedness. It's a philosophy planted in Pocock on a farm in Zimbabwe, nurtured amid fear and inequality and sown during a challenging search for physical and spiritual reconciliation.