World News ‘I’m the funny one’: Meet the other Mulitalo twin Blog

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It took less than half an hour for Lorenzo Mulitalo to follow his brother Ronaldo into the world, but it took the younger of the twins over five years of hard work to find his way to the NRL.

Six weeks ago, Lorenzo was working for a friend’s scaffolding company, playing on the wing for the Wentworthville Magpies in the third-tier Ron Massey Cup and ready to give up his dream of promotion to the NRL.

But an injury crisis in Parramatta brought the 24-year-old, who is only 20 minutes younger than Ronaldo, into the Eels’ NSW Cup team a month ago.

And then earlier this week he learned from Trent Barrett that he would make his NRL debut on Saturday against Gold Coast.

“Halfway through the year I got homesick, I was depressed, I called my mum and said I was thinking of coming home (to Queensland),” Lorenzo told AAP.

“Things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. I had been pushing for something for five years, but it felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere.

“All this was going through my head. My family told me to keep my head down and wait a few more weeks, but I insisted that I wanted to return home.

“I put my all into it and then got called up to the (NSW) Cup. I was happy to play in the Cup and come over once a week to fill up the numbers for the NRL (opposition sessions).

“I took time off work just to be in the picture and hopefully the sacrifice was worth it.

“I wouldn’t have to pay anything most of the week, but why not? That’s a risk I was willing to take for this opportunity.”

Ronaldo and Lorenzo arrived at Cronulla as inexperienced teenagers in 2017. Ronaldo quickly developed into one of the NRL’s most prolific wingers, winning Test caps for New Zealand.

But things weren’t that easy for Lorenzo: After leaving the Sharks, he toured Sydney’s lower-class clubs: North Sydney, Blacktown, Hills, Mounties and Sydney Uni.

“I am often asked if Ronny was jealous, but that was not the case,” said Lorenzo.

“I felt like he was doing it for me, but it made me even hungrier to prove myself.”

Lorenzo is expecting a large group of his family, including Ronaldo and their mother Vaega, to travel to the Gold Coast.

But the younger Mulitalo believes that fans who expected him to be an exact copy of Ronaldo will be disappointed.

“He is the louder and more aggressive one… I am more relaxed, I am the funny one,” Lorenzo said.

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