Where are they now: The Queensland Reds Under-19s classes of 2022 and 2023 as teen Dre Pakeho signs on
Where are they now: Ahead of the Super Rugby Under-19s tournament, check out how the Queensland Reds’ young gun classes of 2022 and 2023 are progressing.
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The Queensland Reds have signed a boom teen named the Under-20s Player of the Year in Queensland rugby and less than five years ago he was all in on rugby league.
New Zealand talent Dre Pakeho, 19, made his Queensland debut in July in a blockbuster bout against Wales and has been rewarded for his form in 2024 with a Super Rugby Pacific contract through 2026.
“To now have my first full-time professional contract at the Reds is really special and in a squad which has big growth in it for 2025,” Pakeho said.
Pakeho’s crisp distribution and composed ball play were obvious against the Welsh. His second game against Tonga in Nuku’alofa showed how much he is up for the physical contest.
Pakeho’s breakout season still had another high to come. He savoured a StoreLocal Hospital Cup grand final triumph with Brothers in August.
Pakeho was eight-years-old when his family moved from New Zealand to Brisbane where shrewd rugby judges have noted his progress from Churchie into Brothers Colts, the Reds Academy and Brothers first grade.
But before taking up a scholarship with Churchie for Year 11 and 12, Pakeho was directing traffic from the halves in the 13-a-side game.
The Mango Hill wrecking ball attended rugby league stronghold Wavell State High, the school that produced Greg Inglis, before moving to Bray Park State High for a year and then Churchie.
His final season playing rugby league was in 2021 for the Redcliffe Dolphins.
He partnered Wavell SHS schoolboy prodigy Karl Oloapu (2022) in the halves. Bulldogs signee Oloapu is currently making his way back from a neck injury.
Pakeho is proof the Super Rugby Pacific Under-19s and Under-16s series is a pathway to higher honours. Last year Pakeho was a part of the Reds Under-19s but will not feature this year as he will be training in the top squad.
Take a trip down memory lane and see how the Under-19s class of 2022 and 2023 are progressing with our Where Are They Now special.
QUEENSLAND REDS UNDER-19S: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
In 2022 the Queenslanders finished second behind a gun New South Wales Waratahs team.
The Reds side had plenty of talent, most notably Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, the ball running Souths flyhalf capable of taking the Reds into the next generation.
Running out at loosehead prop in the 2022 team was Charlie Wigan, a Toowoomba Grammar old boy who this year played in the Hospital Cup for grand finalists Wests Bulldogs.
His hooker was Max Craig, a Reds contracted No.2 who made this team in his first year out of Churchie.
His tighthead prop was Easts Tigers teammate and scrum terror Nick Bloomfield, a Reds Academy player who also featured in last year’s Queensland Under-19s team.
Both Craig and Bloomfield will feature in Easts’ Hospital Cup team in 2025.
In the second row was Lachlan Shaw, a towering Brisbane Boys’ College old boy who has gone on to represent the ACT Brumbies.
His lock partner was Dylan Loader, a former Junior Wallaby who was a staple at lock for the Bond University Bull Sharks during this year’s Hospital Cup.
The talent line does not stop there.
Easts first grader George Stoddart, a boundless flanker, was the blindside that year and he was a reliable Hospital Cup performer this season, his first since coming out of Colts 1.
The team was captained by GPS hardman Nick Baker.
Since 2022, Baker has been toiling away for the Gallopers while completing his chippy apprenticeship and his leadership was a big reason why this Reds side went so far in the competition.
Baker, 21, is a young veteran.
At No.8 was Reds mobile big man John Bryant, one of the best new faces in this year’s Super Rugby Pacific.
The 21-year-old was a Mr Dependable when blokes like Seru Uru and Harry Wilson were unavailable and he cemented that No.8 jersey, while also being capable of playing flanker.
Providing service from scrumhalf was the Easts Tigers most valuable player in second grade this season, Churchie old boy Sam Farrar.
Flyhalf was Harry McLaughlin-Phillips and this tournament was what unearthed him as a potential Super Rugby player.
His ability to wreak havoc in broken play was a standout aspect of his game and the 20-year-old has been learning from the best in James O’Connor ever since.
He and Tom Lynagh hold the keys to the Reds backline next season.
Playing wing throughout this tournament was exciting utility back Jarrod Homan who, had he been luckier with injuries, may have made a Super Rugby debut by now.
The damaging Easts Tiger roared to life in this tournament but his 2023 and 2024 club rugby seasons were marred by injuries.
The BBC First XV rugby premiership winner is looking to make a return in 2025.
Fellow BBC old boy (2021) Taj Annan wore jersey No.13 that year after steering Easts to a joint Colts 1 premiership (shared with University) from flyhalf.
The 21-year-old, who grew up in Merewether, represented the Reds 12 times across various positions before earlier this month signing on for a homecoming with the Newcastle Knights in the NRL.
Exciting Reds winger Tim Ryan also burst onto the scene in this tournament, the St Patrick’s College product showing his elusive style of play and speed out wide.
He was a crowd-pleaser this season at Suncorp Stadium. His breakout game came when he scored three tries in an Anzac Weekend classic won 41-34 by the Blues.
Stationed on the other wing was current Norths Eagles flyer Jackson Connelly and another emerging back at the Eagles nest, flyhalf or fullback Jack Hussey, also featured.
Don’t forget Junior Wallaby and Norths young gun Will McCulloch also made a name for himself in this tournament on the wing or at fullback.
Higher honours beckon for the Padua College product.
Current Bond University first grader Harrison Usher also featured in this team, as well as Brothers second grade conductor Harry Grant and former Nudgee College ace Hunter Lim who is now playing inside centre for the Shizuoka Blue Revs in Japan Rugby League One.
The team also featured slick Sunshine Coast fullback Matt Brice, a fringe first grader this year for University and GPS utility forward Stuart Tualima, a player of Super Rugby potential.
In 2023 new faces flooded the ranks with only a few players able to come back for the Under-19s.
Returning fullback Will McCulloch enhanced his reputation at fullback while Easts Tigers 20-year-old Joe Liddy returned for a much bigger role after playing limited minutes in 2022.
Liddy captained the team and looked set for a big farewell year of Colts 1 this year for Easts until a back injury intervened.
Bloomfield was a staple in the front row for a second successive year as well.
The Reds finished third in 2023, but were plagued by injuries.
Souths Magpies enforcers Dom Thygesen and Trevor King were among those who had to watch from the sidelines.
Macarius Pereira, arguably Queensland’s most prolific schoolboy forward of the decade, donned the No.1 jersey in this team.
Earlier this year he spearheaded the Norths Eagles Colts 1 toward a finals finish, Norths just missing out in the end.
He then left for Pau in France where he is coming through the ranks in the Top 14 club.
His prop buddy Hopo Leota, Iona College’s school captain this year, is also set to ply his trade in France after signing a contract with top 14 powerhouse Racing 92.
Pereira was Queensland’s top schoolboy prop in 2023 and Leota, a Wynnum Bugs junior, the same in 2024.
The hooker in 2023 was Brisbane State High old boy Aidan Taylor, a Brothers boy.
Norths Colts 1 hooker Will Rogers also featured at hooker, as well as Bond University Bull Shark Oliver Barrett who has linked with the Western Force for this tournament.
Barrett (Nudgee College, 2023) will be a key inclusion for the Perth team.
Churchie First XV rugby premiership winner (2022) and former boarder of the school Charles Brosnan, a Country boy from Thallon, played lock in this side.
Also a capable flanker or No.8, Brosnan suffered a hip injury in Brothers’ taming of Randwick earlier this year that crowned them the best club side in the nation.
That prevented him from being a part of the Brethren’s back-to-back premiership pursuit but Brosnan is fit and firing for another go-around for the Reds Under-19s in October.
His lock partner was former Easts Tiger Alex Kerr, another Churchie old boy who took a leap of faith under former Churchie First XV coach Ryan Schultz by moving to Canberra.
Kerr was a fixture at lock for the Tuggeranong Vikings in the John I Dent Cup this season.
Marist College Ashgrove old boy Pat Gavin, a forward leader in GPS’ Colts 1 side this year, also played lock throughout the tournament.
One of the flankers was Brothers weapon Cooper Cameron, one of the premier on-ballers of Colts 1 rugby this year.
Joe Liddy, a breakdown threat himself, wore jersey No.7.
The Reds No.8 was academy talent Pat Sowerby. Sowerby missed his final Colts 1 season this year through injury.
He was a big loss early in the season for the Red Heavies.
One of the very best in Colts 1 this season, Callum Reidy, played scrumhalf for the side last year alongside Sunshine Coast Grammar product Luke Aiken.
Elite halfbacks Aiken, Tate McDermott, Louis Werchon (both Reds) and Tom Manca (Italy rugby) all went to school at SCGS.
Aiken moved across the Tasman this year where he has been playing in the Under-21s competition for Grammar TEC in Auckland.
He represented the Blues Under-20s earlier this year after missing most of the 2023 tournament through injury.
Will Nason, who is back again this season, was the flyhalf last year.
After attending school at Toowoomba Grammar, Nason made the move to Brisbane where he has been key in Souths’ resurgence in the colts ranks.
He is in the Reds Academy.
Welsh weapon Ellis Davies (Brothers Colts 1) also featured at flyhalf.
On the wings were Ryley Bierton (Souths second grade), Denzil Perkins (Souths Colts 1) and Joe Doljanin (GPS Colts 1, Hospital Cup).
Bierton was age-eligible to play colts this season but opted to play in the grades, while former Ipswich Grammar track whiz Perkins showed a clean pair of heels for the premiers this season.
Doljanin, a St Mary’s College, Toowoomba product, built on his Under-19s campaign to be one of the most important outside centres in Colts 1 this season.
When he was elevated into coach Sio Kite’s Hospital Cup side, Doljanin was right at home.
In the midfield was Dre Pakeho (inside centre) and Frankie Goldsbrough (outside centre), rugby league juniors who the Reds have invested in.
Goldsbrough is a long-term project for the Reds having signed a Super Rugby Pacific contract last year as a senior at Churchie.
Pakeho, Goldsbrough’s First XV teammate in 2022, has been rewarded for a bumper club season with the Brethren with a contract of his own.
Pakeho, who attended Wavell SHS and Bray Park SHS before landing at Churchie, was rock solid in his Queensland debut against Wales in July.
“My debut against Wales was pretty special … Running out there, 23000 people, it was something special, about 100 of them were my family,” Pakeho said.
Brothers Colts 1 captain Rory Beech featured at prop off the bench alongside flame-haired GPS prop Nick Harper in the Reds Under-19s last year.
Beech, Harper, Tommy O’Callaghan (Souths), Cadell Rees (Souths), Nikotimo Mateiwa (Bond University), Isaac Nomani (Sunnybank) and Campbell King (Wests) were all a class above in the Colts 1 competition this year following the Under-19s experience in 2023.
Last year’s Under-20s player of the year Jake Kurbatoff, a big bodied lock, was promptly elevated into coach Garrick Morgan’s 2024 Hospital Cup team after playing just one year of colts.
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