Frankie Goldsbrough set for Queensland Reds Super Rugby Pacific debut against the Crusaders
A boom rugby rookie once wanted by the Brisbane Broncos is set to make his Queensland Reds Super Rugby Pacific debut against the Crusaders on Sunday.
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A boom teen once wanted by the Brisbane Broncos has the chance to live out a childhood Super Rugby Pacific debut dream on Sunday when the Queensland Reds face the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Outside centre Frankie Goldsbrough, 19, has been named on the bench for the round 4 encounter.
Should Queensland coach Les Kiss call on him, it will be a moment those who have followed Goldsbrough’s journey closely will say was destined to happen.
“He used to wreak havoc at Easts. He would go finding kids to fend and those kids had no chance,” said Easts Tigers Colts 1 head coach Jack Richards.
Goldsbrough has been on a steep trajectory since he was signed by the Queensland Reds as a 17-year-old Year 12 student at Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie).
He was a fixture in the Reds Under-19s side while at school in 2023 and a key figure in the Australian Under-18s side that won against the New Zealand Schools late last year across the tasman.
Last October he played his first match for Queensland as an 18-year-old in the club’s exhibition clash against the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan, joining the likes of Elton Flatley and Jordan Petaia as players to have enjoyed their first minutes for the Reds at that age.
But well before Goldsbrough was being groomed by the Reds as a next generation outside back, he was being monitored by the astute Brisbane Broncos talent scouts who had him in their academy.
So impressive was he as a rugby league edge forward, the Broncos were willing to sign the youngster who played district representative league.
The Broncos first noted his potential as a schoolboy attending Ormiston College in Redlands.
But Goldsbrough was a rugby boy at heart.
Richards, who has known the Goldsbrough family since Frankie was a child, coached him last season at colts 1 club level at club.
He recalled Frankie’s junior days at Easts where he would weave around defenders, score tries regularly and raise eyebrows while doing it.
When Richards teaches his current crop of colts players to stay square in attack, visions of a destructive young-gun-Goldsbrough spring to mind because he used to run a mini marathon evading players.
The quirky Goldsbrough, who invokes memories of former Wallaby Anthony Herbert, moved from Ormiston to Churchie for Year 10 in 2021 and in 2022 his school’s First XV shared the GPS premiership with The Southport School and Nudgee College.
Goldsbrough was one of the finest centres in the competition this decade, alongside Roosters gun Rob Toia (Nudgee College) and Reds inside centre Dre Pakeho who was Goldsbrough’s centre partner at Churchie in 2022.
Heading into his senior school year Goldsbrough had the choice of pursuing rugby league, or staying in rugby.
In a huge coup for rugby, Goldsbrough opted to stay with the code he grew up terrorising his peers in and sign with Queensland.
“When he left rugby league he came back with this mindset and work ethic and whatever he did there transferred across,” Richards said.
“It is the presence that he brings which is the most important.
“He immediately has a presence. That’s the first thing you notice within two seconds.”
Originally published as Frankie Goldsbrough set for Queensland Reds Super Rugby Pacific debut against the Crusaders
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