Rugby fan favourite Nick Cummins, who is as famous for his hilarious sideline commentary and his down-to-earth, knockabout Aussie humour, is about to turn the reality romance series on its head and attract a legion of new female fans to The Bachelor.
Following in the footsteps of former Bachelor runners-up such as Matty Johnson and Richie Strahan, The Port Macquarie born, Brisbane-raised star is a unique choice for Channel 10 which has struggled, in the words of one TV expert, with lacklustre “washed-up former Bachelors” in recent years.
“He’s going to be great for the franchise. Funny, witty, with a huge cult following. This is stroke of genius for the network,” the source told Woman’s Day.
The curly-haired, burly bloke is a favourite amongst men and women for his post match quips such as “I was sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage” whilst describing his on-field performance.
Nick, 30, met his last girlfriend, Norwegian student Martine Thomassen, when she was visiting Perth where he was playing for the Western Force before moving to Japan to play for the Coca-Cola Sparks in the Japanese top league – a move he says he made to make money to help support his family, including his two younger siblings, Elizabeth and Joe, who both suffer cystic fibrosis.
He is almost a legend on the field – for both his incredible try scoring ability and his fierce “Honey Badger”-like approach to rugby and life.
“I come across this little mongrel and just the way it approached life I thought that’s outstanding,” remembers Nick, explaining how he became the “honey badger”.
“The badge? Long story short, basically there was a documentary on National Geographic or Animal Planet, one of them Fox set-ups, and I watched this thing and this honey badger was going toe to toe with a male lion and it was underneath him, the underdog obviously.”
“But he’s on his back, clawing away, one, two, and then bloody, the big fella (lion) got his canastas clawed off and he trotted off round the corner and fell over and the badger gets back up and I thought, ‘What an animal, that’s bloody, that’s impressive’.”
Nick has enjoyed a growing commercial career outside of rugby in recent years, becoming the face of Tradie underwear and workwear for men and smaller campaigns for Head and Shoulders shampoo, and more recently an ambassador for Tourism Australia alongside Chris Hemsworth.
And he brings with him a social media following of “great meat” as he’d say, with an Instagram audience of 250,000 followers.
One thing’s for sure, as Nick would say he’ll be “as busy as a one-armed bricklayer in Baghdad” with the 24 wannabe Bachelorettes hot on his heels.
The best Honey Badger one-liners
• ‘I was busier than a one armed bricklayer in Baghdad.’
• ‘Like a midget in a urinal you gotta be on your toes.’
• ‘The boys were on it like seagulls at a tip.’
• We needed the patience of the Dalai Lama out there
• ‘I bloody was like a rat up a drainpipe in one of them runs there.’
• ‘Sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage.’
• ‘If I get a gig, I’m gonna go off like a cut snake.’
• ‘One of the stories that inspires me is that it is documented that a honey badger killed a lion in a one-on-one.’
• ‘Just like that kid that fell outta the tree ya know, he just wasn’t in it.’
• ‘Last year we were all sizzle and no steak, but now we’re off like a bride’s nightie.’
