How tomorrow's Wallabies turned the tide against their neighbours and rocketed Noah Lolesio from one state to the next
Noah Lolesio entered 2020 without a single Super Rugby cap to his name.
When the new season kicked off, however, the 20-year-old was thrust immediately into the spotlight – and quickly helped guide the Brumbies to five wins from six matches.
Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle has refused to rule out cutting an Australian Super Rugby team due to budget constraints:
As fast as he swings the ball out to his midfield runners, Lolesio was fast to pass the credit onto his teammates.
“I didn’t find it as challenging as I was expecting at all thanks to all the great players around me,” Lolesio told RugbyPass. “I’ve just been doing my job for my team and enjoying my footy.”
It’s not just the way that Lolesio has been performing that’s so impressive though, it’s the fact that until recently, the Brumbies pivot played almost exclusively in the midfield.
That hasn’t stopped Lolesio from defying his age and looking like one of the calmest operators in this year’s now suspended Super Rugby season.
And while the Brumbies were cruising along nicely prior to the coronavirus-induced roadblock, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing throughout Lolesio’s career.
Three years ago, Lolesio represented the Australia Schools side in their annual clash with their New Zealand rivals.
NZ have had always had the upper-hand in the age-grade battles between the neighbouring nations, but 2017 was an especially disheartening result for the men in gold.
“We got thumped,” Lolesio accurately said of the 34-11 loss.
New Zealand ran in six tries in the spanking with the likes of Etene Nanai-Seturo, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Danny Toala all touching down for scores.
Australia’s sole try came through prop Darcy Breen.
It may have become widespread in Europe, but for the Southern Hemisphere-bred folks like Matt Giteau, this little convention is still a bit of a mystery… @giteau_rugby #rugbyhttps://t.co/iTJAmKhL0L
— Tom Vinicombe (@TomVinicombe) March 31, 2020
Lolesio – who was alongside current Super Rugby players such as Will Harrison, Angus Bell and Jordan Petai – doesn’t remember the game fondly.
“I just think we were pretty filthy on ourselves in schoolboys. We were pretty heartbroken after that New Zealand game.”
Two years later, and a number of those same players were back in Wallabies colours for the Under 20 campaign.
As with the schoolboys side, the Junior Wallabies had not had much luck in recent years; between 2012 and 2018, Australia’s best placing at the Under 20 World Championship was 5th, which they ‘achieved’ on three occasions.
They turned things around completely for 2019, however.
In the Oceania Cup, the warm-up to the World Championship, they secured their first-ever victory over the New Zealand Under 20 side in 12 attempts, 24-0.
“In that Oceania Cup we really wanted to make a statement that we’re not a pushover team, we wanted to win the whole World Cup,” Lolesio said.
“We were definitely up for the game against the Junior ABs and it’s good that we brought that momentum forward through to the World Cup and just, unfortunately, fell a bit short in that grand final but I’m sure we made everyone back home pretty proud.”
A 1-point loss in the final to France was nothing to shake a stick at and bodes exceptionally well for Australia’s future.
But what caused the massive change in fortunes, given that a similar side was thumped two years prior?
“Probably mentally and physically we were just much better,” suggested Lolesio.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-YGZlfAdwc/
“The academy pathways over all the franchises helped our skills. I thought Gilly [coach Jason Gilmore] did an awesome job, picking the right shape and game plan for the players that we had.
“We were a pretty tight group as well; I reckon that’s probably what got us up over a bunch of teams. There weren’t any cliquey groups or anything. I’d say that’d be a major factor.”
While Lolesio had Harrison playing alongside him at 10 in both campaigns, Reds star Isaac Lucas joined the Under 20 side in 2019 as another playmaking option. All three men have started at first five for their respective Super Rugby sides this season – something which Lolesio is exceptionally proud of.
“It’s good to see the mates that you grow up with playing footy do well outside of school,” Lolesio said. “Harro and Zaccy, they’re awesome players and deserve every bit of it.”
There’s naturally still plenty of development room left for the young first five – development he hopes to continue at the Brumbies, despite growing up on the Gold Coast and being schooled at The Southport School.
“All I wanted to do after school was go to uni and play footy,” Lolesio said.
“I had a couple of offers in the Gold Coast and in Queensland too but the Brumbies came up with a uni scholarship and an academy spot and I probably wanted to experience something different as well, I didn’t want to just get stuck in Queensland.
“So, I basically just booked a one-way ticket to Canberra.”
Queensland’s loss is the Brumbies’ gain, with the Auckland-born playmaker now thriving in ACT colours.
Whether we’ll bare witness to any further Super Rugby this year is still up in the air – but if the Brumbies do take the field once more, you can bet that Lolesio will have a large say in the side’s future performances.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments