Things were on a roll in the States but circumstances brought him back to Australia, where he went to watch his cousin play in a local rugby league sevens tournament on the NSW Central Coast – and ran into an icon of the game.
‘Greg Inglis was there playing too and the team was short of players so my cuz [cousin] asked would I fill in,’ he recalled.
Following the tournament, in which his footwork served him very well, he thought he’d make some tentative enquiries about rugby league.
So he phoned a friend and asked him how he could get a trial at the Tigers.
Rugby league wasn’t foreign to him at all, in fact he was a schoolboy star playing at the famed Keebra High in Queensland alongside Broncos sensation Reece Walsh.
‘One of my best mates played for the Tigers and I gave him a call after the tournament and asked if he could get me in the Tigers system,’ Bula said.
‘He said he would give the [Jersey] Flegg [under 21s] coach a call, the coach then called me and said to come in for training.
‘The next week after that I was training with the NRL squad once a week.
‘It was all happening so fast.’
That, according to the Tigers’ new sensation, was the day his mojo for football came flooding back.
‘Right now it’s just surreal. Everything is happening so quickly, I’m still processing it.’
Bula, who was born in New Zealand but moved with his family to the Gold Coast eight years ago, is rapidly proving to be the club’s lucky charm. He’s played three games with them and has starred their only two wins.
Last week he pulled off a near impossible stop of flying Dragons winger Mikeale Ravalawa who looked certain to clinch a last minute win for the big red V until Bula put his entire body on the line and crashed him into touch.
