Mass exodus of senior players has Super Rugby teams eyeing talented youngsters

Australia Super Rugby teams will enter the race to snare the country’s best young talent on the back the of the Junior Wallabies’ World Cup success - but the inevitable raid comes with a stark warning.

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Australia’s Super Rugby teams have been urged to resist the temptation to fill their depleted playing rosters with the Junior Wallabies who suffered a heartbreaking loss in the under 20 world championship final.

While the current squad is packed with up and coming stars who have been tipped to reverse the decline of the struggling senior team, the man who helped oversee their development has warned against rushing them too quickly.

While Junior Wallabies head coach Jason Gilmore has no doubts his brilliant youngsters can become future Test internationals despite their gut wrenching 24-23 loss to France in the final in Argentina, he said patience is the key.

Hooker Lachlan Lonergan was one of the Junior Wallabies best. Picture: Getty

“If you look at the history of the Junior Wallabies, the majority of guys do step up to Super Rugby but they are still young men and it’s a very big step up so they have to be developed properly,” Gilmore told The Daily Telegraph.

“There will be some who will play Super Rugby earlier than others but what we’ve got to make sure we do is that we equip them with all the skills to be successful rugby players.

“What we don’t want to happen is to see players lose their contracts when they are 22 year olds that weren’t developed so that’s the challenge for all the coaches around the country to make sure we ‘re doing the right thing by the boys.”

Most of the squad members have already been snapped up by Australia’s Super Rugby franchises as development players, but the mass exodus of senior players heading overseas could fast track their introduction to the professional ranks.

Mark Nawaqanitawase in full flight. Picture: Getty

The Waratahs are about to embark on a major rebuilding phase after not only losing several senior players but also their head coach Daryl Gibson so could be tempted to look to the Junior Wallabies as the building blocks for the next generation.

“There’s obviously some boys who played trial time this year with the Waratahs, Will Harrison, Ben Donaldson and Will Harris and then you've got the like of Angus Bell and Henry Robinson that are coming through the system as well so hopefully you'll see those boys feature in the next couple of seasons,” Gilmore said.

“But we can’t complicate this system, we've just to keep it nice and simple. What worked in rugby 20-30 years ago still works now, so we've just to make sure we guide these guys into Super Rugby with the right skill development, physical development and mental development.

“Just because they get a contract and they run onto a Super Rugby field, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been developed so we just have to make sure we make the most of this current group and the groups coming behind them.”