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Brumbies' youth movement continues with scrum-half signing
By Alex Shaw
Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar said earlier this year that he would back the young players at the franchise to replace the departing Christian Lealiifano, who will be heading to Japan to play for NTT Communications Shining Arcs after the Rugby World Cup.
The side already had Mack Hansen, Bayley Kuenzle and Noah Lolesio on the roster with all three capable of playing at fly-half, although Hansen can also operate at full-back and Lolesio has played much of his recent rugby at inside centre. The Brumbies added to their stocks by securing the signing of much-coveted schoolboy fly-half Reesjan Pasitoa from Nudgee College.
The youth movement has not been limited to the number 10 jersey, either, with Nick Frost having been snapped up from the Crusaders' development pathway. The Australian lock had an impressive season with the Junior Wallabies and will help make up for the losses of Rory Arnold and Sam Carter to France and Ireland respectively.
The latest addition comes in the form of Lachlan Albert, a schoolboy scrum-half who played alongside Pasitoa for the Australian Schools team last year and who is set to graduate from Riverview College this year.
Albert has signed a three-year contract with the Brumbies and will compete with Joe Powell, Ryan Lonergan and Matt Lucas for a spot in the franchise's 2020 Super Rugby squad. Although game time may be limited initially, McKellar will be hoping that Albert and Pasitoa can rekindle their chemistry from the Australian Schools team and help form the long-term spine of the Canberra side.
“I’m so excited by the prospect of moving to Canberra to join the Brumbies,” Albert said of his signing. “It has been a dream of mine to be given an opportunity like this and it’s humbling to know that the Brumbies are supporting me in working towards becoming the best player I can be.
“After watching the Brumbies campaign this year and becoming familiar with the positive environment they have created, it clearly speaks for itself, and I am beyond excited that I get to grow as a rugby player and a person with them.”
Brumbies General Manager, Professional Rugby & Pathways, Chris Tindall welcomed Albert joining the Brumbies. “Our coaches were very impressed by Lachlan both in his playing ability potential and his character in his desire to learn and drive to work hard to be the best he can be.
“We are pleased to have Lachlan join our Brumbies Academy Development Programme to work with him, along with our local Academy players, to help them develop towards playing Super Rugby with the Brumbies and for the Wallabies.”
The Brumbies will also have standout Australia U20 hooker Lachlan Lonergan on their roster next season, with the post-Rugby World Cup exodus of players set to create plenty of opportunities for youngsters at the franchise, who topped the Australian conference last season and have made the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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