Hurt, frustrated and battle weary, Australian Under-20s skipper Liam Gill hasn’t returned to the Queensland Reds in the best physical or mental shape.
But the rising openside flanker believes the rigours of a failed world junior championship campaign – where he played five games in 18 days in South Africa – has him perfectly match hardened for Super Rugby’s business end.
An outstanding performer for the Reds in 2012, Gill’s season lost some of it lustre as the national U20s finished a worst-ever eighth after being upset in their last four matches.
“It’s certainly not easy to be the leader of a team which is not producing good results and I think it was very stressful and frustrating,” Gill told AAP.
“My composure and my character certainly could have been a lot better and that was a big lesson I took out of the tournament.”
Adding injury to insult, he ended the campaign with a head knock in a close loss to England but has been cleared to line up for Queensland against the Rebels in Melbourne on Friday night.
It’s a clash he’s looking forward to in spite of his huge workload, where the only rest he got was 15 minutes at the end of a tournament-opening thrashing of Scotland.
“My body held up well, and I think it will certainly help me now in terms of match fitness and hardening my body up,” said Gill, whose ninth-placed Reds need three straight wins to make the play-offs.
“It also is physically tough but I’m very excited to come back into the Reds and step back up again.
“(The U20s results) won’t be brushed aside and overlooked … but I think I can mentally put it aside.
“We’ve got a big job to do now with the Reds and that’s where my head’s at.”
Australian U20s coach David Nucifora continued to select Gill once they missed the semi-finals following pool losses to Argentina and France but the 19-year-old had no complaint that he should have been rested for Super Rugby.
“It’s easy to look at it like that but it was very frustrating and I don’t think my ego would have allowed me to do that,” he said. “I wanted to put a win on the board and I was more than happy to put my hand up.”
Gill is set to start against the Rebels, with fellow ball scavenger Beau Robinson likely to be on the bench along with recalled cult hero Radike Samo.
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