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The season has already begun in South Africa, and is right on our doorstep in Australia and New Zealand. The pre-season trials are done, the Brisbane Tens are long gone, and finally, competition points are on the line.
With any new season comes great optimism, and 2018 is no different in that respect, particularly among the Australian sides. What’s fuelling that optimism is up for debate and may, in time, prove to be a mirage. But none of that changes the fact that right now, all teams are equal.
Front and centre among this optimism is youth, and the notion that this will be the year when a young player emerges from the broader depths of a squad and within a matter of games stands out as a genuinely exciting player of the future.
Here are the five guys I’m really looking forward to seeing do that in 2018.
Melbourne Rebels hooker Jordan Uelese has only just turned 21. Back in late 2016, I was chatting with Melbourne Rising NRC coach Zane Hilton, asking him about the new hooker he called up mid-season. “Yoo-lay-see,” Hilton said to confirm my pronunciation enquiry, before quickly adding, “watch him, he’s going to be a gun.”
Less than a year later, he was a Wallaby.
Even in those early appearances, there was something about him. He graduated to Super Rugby last season, but the Rebels were really careful in not rushing the then-just-20-year-old. Even only a couple of Super Rugby appearances later in the year suggested this kid wasn’t out of his depth.
Then he got a Wallabies squad call-up in July last year and everyone sat up and wondered: is this kid with only three games to his name ready for international rugby? In September, he debuted for Australia against South Africa and answered the question: an emphatic yes, he is ready.
Like all the good ones, Uelese has taken the next step and looked at home every time. But 2018 will be different, because now he has expectation to deal with. With James Hanson and Pat Leafa heading abroad, and a Wallabies cap on the mantlepiece, Uelese will be viewed as a starting player for the Rebels pack looking to make a mark on the Australian conference.
But having seen him from the start, I’m genuinely excited about what he could become this season. He’s going to be a gun, alright.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
I don’t know why I had it in my head that new Brumbies backrower Isi Naisarani was 25 or 26, because he’s only just this month turned 23.
Like Uelese, Naisarani is another to have excelled every time he’s taken the next step, and even without wanting to jump the gun on him, it really does feel like only a matter of time before he plays international rugby. He was a standout in the 2016 NRC season, went to Perth and promptly starred for the Western Force last season, being named their player of the year for 2017.
He again starred in the 2017 NRC, this time for the Perth Spirit, and was named in the NRC Team of the Year in a back-row which included Tom Cusack and Rob Valetini. It’s not at all inconceivable that the three of them will team up for the Brumbies this season – and in fairness, both Cusack and Valetini could easily have commanded a spot in this article.
Already, it appears the Brumbies are playing Naisarani in a hybrid blindside/no.8 role, whereby he’s playing on the side of the ruck in defence in their own half, before switching to the back of the scrum and the central corridors in attack.
Plenty have him pencilled in as the 2018 buy of the year, and I don’t mind admitting I’m among that group. I’m really looking forward to him proving everyone right.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
It’s something of a homecoming for country NSW product Alex Newsome, with the 23-year-old joining the Waratahs for 2018 having only just signed a new two-year deal with the Force at the end of 2017 season.
Equally at home at fullback or on the wing, where his finishing speed will give the Waratahs a new dimension in attack, Newsome also proved to be a top-notch outside centre for NSW Country during last year’s NRC tournament, which adds another string to his bow and gives Daryl Gibson another genuine option for the no.13 jersey.
Aside from the return of Kurtley Beale and the southern venture of former Queensland lock Rob Simmons, there hasn’t been a whole lot said about the Tahs for 2018, because there is that feeling of ‘sameness’ about them. Beale will be the key, though, and Newsome’s ability to hit a hole and accelerate into space might only be topped in the NSW squad by Israel Folau himself.
Newsome is a good reader of defence as well, and I genuinely can’t think of a better intercept-sniffer-outerer in Australian rugby. He was excelling over in the west last season, and 2018 is the season the young outside back goes to another level again.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In Queensland, there is a lot of seriously quality young talent to keep an eye on, but like everyone else, I’ll be keeping a close watch on prop-of-destruction Taniela Tupou.
2017 was the season the 21-year-old went from YouTube star to Wallaby, adding an NRC title with Queensland Country to his Brisbane Premiership with Brothers back in 2016, but in 2018, he’ll be one of the experienced heads among a very young Queensland Reds team.
His defence and his ball-running are well known, and even more so the difficulty in stopping him close to the line, but this season will be the one in which he is judged on his scrummaging first and foremost. His set-piece prowess will be what makes him a Test regular, and it’s arguably that part of his game that the Reds will need from him most in 2018.
But that’s exciting. Super Rugby is going to be an excellent test for him at scrum time, with contests against international looseheads more often than not. If he can add some technical excellence to his already solid around-the-ground game, then that’s another huge advancement for the young Reds this year.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Rounding out this five-to-watch collection is a guy whose game I’ve not stopped thinking about since seeing it for myself live only a few weeks ago.
The way scrumhalf Matt Lucas flicked the switch every time the Brumbies entered opposition halves during their trial games this year has been immediately noticeable and should be really encouraging for Brumbies supporters.
Granted, 26 years of age might be skirting the boundaries of what qualifies as a young player here, but remember Lucas has spent a lot of time trying to prove himself from the Waratahs’ bench. He’s ready to make his impact as a starting player for the Brumbies, and it’s already very clear that Joe Powell has a lot of competition on his hands for the no.9 jersey.
Lucas won’t be afraid of creating a new challenge for himself in a new environment, having left home in Queensland as a teenager, and made his way to Canberra years later via the Australian sevens set-up and the Manly Marlins and Sydney Rays on the northern beaches.
And he’s having that impact already; whenever the Brumbies enter attacking territory, Lucas comes alive, barking orders and pointing to where he needs the forwards to be to set up the plays, before firing precision passes to unleash the Brumbies backline.
Joe Powell is going to be a very, very good player soon enough, but he might only be the second-biggest beneficiary of Lucas being in the Brumbies squad this season.
If Lucas is driving the Brumbies the same way in July as he has so far in February, there is plenty of reason to think they’ll be right up on the competition ladder.
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