Sea Eagle released to chase Rugby World Cup dream
CLASSY young back Tom Wright could end up playing for the Wallabies in the 2019 Rugby World Cup after being released by the Sea Eagles to join the ACT Brumbies.
Manly
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CLASSY young back Tom Wright could end up playing for the Wallabies in the 2019 Rugby World Cup after being released by the Sea Eagles to join the ACT Brumbies.
Discussions with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and his Brumbies counterpart Dan McKellar convinced the 21-year-old the right decision was to leave Manly while still having another year to run on his contact.
“You look at the landscape of Australian rugby and they are really short in the 10-12 spot,” said Wright’s manager Craig Baker.
“We had a really productive talk with Dan McKellar and he really pressed that, they want him to start there in Super Rugby next year.
“Tom had chats with Michael Cheika and he didn’t promise anything but said they had a number of vacancies in that space at the moment.
“‘Cheik’ made it clear that if he can play well and show what he has got he would have no hesitation in picking him.’
Wright was a stand out schoolboy rugby player at St Joseph’s College who has spent three seasons at Manly.
He was a key figure in the club’s under 20s premiership winning side last year and played four NRL games this year, scoring a spectacular solo try against St George Illawarra at WIN Stadium.
“He had re-signed until the end of 2019 and we requested a release and they granted that we were thankful that they did,” Baker said.
Wright said: “I always dreamt of playing Super Rugby and now I have this fantastic opportunity to test myself playing at the highest level.”
It was hard for Wright to leave Manly where he has such good mates and rang a number of them before he signed with the Brumbies for two years.
And Baker said Wright will return to rugby a far better player after his time at Manly working in the fulltime professional environment alongside the likes of Daly Cherry-Evans, Dylan Walker and Jake and Tom Trbojevic