The Brumbies changing of the guard at flyhalf has proved a smooth one so far, with young gun Noah Lolesio declaring himself ready for Super Rugby.
Veteran playmaker Christian Lealiifano departed in the off-season and Lolesio got first crack at filling his boots in a trial against the Melbourne Rebels on Thursday night.
Lolseio, who only turned 20 last month, looked comfortable pulling the strings for the first time and will likely start round one against the Queensland Reds next Friday.
“I was pretty nervous before the game but when I got out there it felt pretty natural and normal. I just enjoyed it, it was awesome,” Lolesio said.
“I felt like (coach) Dan (McKellar) wouldn’t have picked me if I wasn’t ready, so I felt comfortable but I learnt a lot as well – mostly around game management.
“I definitely want to stamp my name as the number one and starting 10 and hopefully I did enough.”
The Brumbies lost 157 Test caps in the off-season, including Lealiifano, David Pocock, Henry Speight, Rory Arnold and Sam Carter.
But McKellar was left thrilled after his young guns stepped up to thrash the Rebels 45-14 in Albury.
“I thought Noah was good, he controlled the game well,” McKellar said.
“I think he’ll learn from that first 20-minute period where we did play a little too much in our end but we’ve been guilty of that quite a bit in the past so that’s more a team thing.
“All the young boys were good.”
Lolesio admitted it was surreal lining up against Wallabies and Rebels playmaker Matt Toomua but said he’d grow in confidence as the season progressed, and put his hand up for goalkicking duties.
“I looked up and was like ‘Woah he’s actually there’,” Lolesio said.
“It was awesome. The only big player I’ve played is Quade Cooper so to play Matty Toomua was unreal.”
© AAP
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