This masthead has tracked down the junior coaches and administrators who played roles great and small in producing the squad Eddie Jones will take to France.

In a two-part series their stories will be told, from the perspectives of those who have known them longest.

PROPS (6)

Angus Bell

22, NSW Waratahs, 23 Tests

School: Newington College, NSW AAGPS

Junior Club: Hunters Hill Rugby Club, NSW

Senior Club: Sydney University, NSW

Teachers at Newington College said there were never any fears about Angus Bell’s ability to bounce back from a series of injuries that had threatened to derail the young prop’s career.

A troublesome toe was not going to stop Bell from taking his place with the Wallabies in France.

Mark Dickens, Newington’s head of sport, said grit and determination had personified the son of Wallaby #729 Mark Bell as a young man at the school

“He’s had a few injuries of significance, and your heart is always in your mouth about how they will bounce back, but he has showed the grit and resilience to do that. That was his character when he was here,” Dickens said.

“He had a couple a couple of injuries that he had to get through and he bounced back and was never afraid to do the hard work in the gym, or running and things like that.

“He’s worked really hard and we wish him every success and we’ll be watching the World Cup cheering for him.”

STORY: Why Angus Bell can make Australia’s scrum the best in the world

Bell was a talented multi-sport athlete, as a senior shot-putter, cricketer and First XV standout.

“He was a fast bowler in cricket and never shirked his duties on the cricket field, even when it was hot and he was asked to bowl in 30+ degree heat. He would roll his sleeves up and really tear in,” Dickens said.

“He was focused on his academics and his sport, he wasn’t just a rugby player. He had a good friendship group all the way through, all like-minded boys who were into their sport.

“I just remember him always wanting to get better but also the team. It wasn’t just about him, although he did want to improve. He was never selfish on the field.”

Hunters Hill rugby club coach Luke McCormack said Bell’s ability to lead even as a youngster had convinced him a Wallabies captaincy was in his future.

“Angus was a big, gentle giant, and as he has got older his leadership ability makes me personally believe he will be a great Wallaby captain when the time is right,” McCormack said.

Pone Fa’amausili

26, Melbourne Rebels, 5 Tests

School: Dandenong High School, VIC

Junior Club: Moorabbin Rams, VIC

Senior Club: Moorabbin Rams, VIC / Northern Suburbs, NSW

The sight of Pone Fa’amausili as a human battering ram at the Rebels has been all too familiar for the monster prop’s junior coaches at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Rams.

Ian White recalls the future Wallaby proving unstoppable in Victoria’s junior club rugby ranks.

“Up until under-16s there probably wasn’t a game where he didn’t score one or two tries,” Fa’amausili’s former junior coach reflected.

“He was just running through everybody, and it was just always ‘Okay, I guess Pone has got the ball again.’

“Once he realised that he could score tries all over the place and run through people rugby became quite easy for him.

“He did always make sure his mates and teammates got their fair share of tries as well.”

White said although the Rams were far from Melbourne’s most fashionable club, Fa’amausili was still a regular guest and pulled on the senior jersey every chance he could.

Zane Nonggorr

22, Queensland Reds, Gold Coast Eagles, 2 Tests

School: The Southport School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Gold Coast Eagles, QLD

Senior Club: Bond University, QLD

Zane Nonggorr has carved more than 40 kilograms off his broad frame to take his place as the youngest front rower in the Wallabies World Cup squad for France.

The Papua New Guinean-born prop weighed in at over 160 kilograms as a 14-year-old - heavier as a teenager than the largest player ever to feature in a Rugby World Cup (Ben Tameifuna, Tonga 2019, 158kg).

The Southport School’s First XV coach Mike Wallace said none could have predicted the spectacular rise Nonggorr would enjoy, as an Australian Schoolboy and U20, to Wallabies debutant bound for France.

STORY: Mike Wallace: Nonggorr, Gray top players I have ever coached

“You wouldn’t have picked Zane’s greater potential if you’d seen him as a 14-year-old,” Wallace said.

“We don’t want to fat-shame anybody but Zane was large - obese would be a good word to use.

“He was a kid with fantastic, ridiculously good catch-pass skills and a desire to want to compete but he was a big kid.

“In Grade 10 he recognised he wanted to compete with the big boys (in the First XV) and needed to knuckle down with his cardiovascular work to be able to compete across the park.

“He did that work, which led to him being selected in First XV (at 145kg) in 2017, and in fact was named man of the match in his very first game, playing against Jordan Petaia at Brisbane State High.”

Nonggorr captained TSS to an undefeated GPS premiership in 2019, at 130kg, as arguably the finest player in First XV rugby that season.

“He always had massive skill, and desire to compete, but he needed to prepare his body. He didn’t do that by doing anything drastic or staving himself, but he understood that he had to work hard and he did work really hard.

“I’m so impressed with the effort he has put in to be not just competitive but dominant.”

Blake Schoupp

23, ACT Brumbies, uncapped

School: St Joseph’s Nudgee College, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Woonona Shamrocks, NSW

Senior Club: Southern Districts, NSW / Randwick, NSW

A harsh awakening at St Joseph’s Nudgee College was the sliding doors moment that ignited the work ethic that has carried Blake Schoupp to the Rugby World Cup.

Unwanted by a Super Rugby club until late last year, Schoupp earned his fairytale debut season in Canberra via a train-and-trial opportunity.

A meteoric rise has seen Schoupp grow from club footy battler and PE teacher to a World Cup Wallaby in less than 12 months.

It was a rise his former First XV coach Gerard Alexander didn’t see coming after a rocky start to the youngster’s tenure at Queensland’s most famous rugby nursery.

Schoupp, at 15, had caught the eye of a talent scout whiling representing the NSW Country U16s and was offered a scholarship to continue his education in Brisbane.

“When he first rocked up at Nudgee he came with pretty big wraps,” Alexander said.

“I went out to watch him play and to best honest I was a bit underwhelmed.

“It was a really difficult conversation. I sat him down and asked him how he thought he went and he said ‘pretty good’ - and you never want to crush someone - but I had to tell him he’d only done two or three clean-outs and a handful of tackles, so what did he actually do?

“He came back to me and said, ‘you know I’m in the NSW Country under-16s, right?’

“When he came back to school we dropped him out of the First XV squad.”

The Wollongong product set about improving his game and fought his way back to the school’s top team.

That hard work saw him start two seasons in the school front row and earned Schoupp a Queensland Schoolboys jersey in 2016.

That relentless streak to re-take his place in the school team has become the Brumbies prop’s calling card throughout his senior career.

“I’m delighted for him,” Alexander said.

“He fought his back to the top squad, worked very hard to get where he has got, and endeared himself to everybody in the process.

“He’s stayed in touch with a few teachers. Our head of maths just swears by him. She reckons he’s one of the nicest kids she’s ever taught.”

From being dropped from the First XV to becoming Nudgee’s sole Wallaby at the World Cup, Alexander could not be prouder.

James Slipper

34, ACT Brumbies, 131 Tests

School: The Southport School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Bond Pirates, QLD

Senior Club: Bond University, QLD

Former Wallabies and Scotland defence coach Matt Taylor heralded James Slipper as a player from a bygone era when he first encountered the Gold Coaster as a schoolboy.

Taylor had the best seat in the house as head coach of Slipper’s 2007 The Southport School First XV team, which included future Wallabies Ben Tapua’i and Luke Morahan.

Under the prop’s captaincy the team finished the GPS season undefeated

“The thing that stuck out about Slippy was that he was an old-school type player. He was just tough, wouldn’t take a backwards step for anyone,” Taylor said.

“At TSS you come up against some of the bigger teams who had a really big Polynesian influence. Sometimes, rightly or wrongly, the white boys from some of these schools could get a little bit scared. What I loved about Slippy is he wasn’t afraid to get stuck in to anyone he was playing and that set him apart.

“He was very aggressive and I thought, geez, this kid is way, way ahead of his time. He reminded me of a Dan Crowley (former World Cup winning Wallaby and undercover cop) with his toughness and leadership.”

Taylor said the skillbase forged in a junior career at flyhalf and centre had developed the game awareness that will take Slipper into a fourth World Cup campaign.

The 34-year-old has featured 131 times for the Wallabies to sit as our second-most capped player behind George Gregan.

Taniela Tupou

27, Queensland Reds, 48 Tests

School: Sacred Heart College, NZ

Junior Club: -

Senior Club: Brothers, QLD

The star of rugby union’s most viral schoolboy highlights reel arrived on the doorstep of Brothers Rugby Club in Brisbane armed with a Queensland Reds contract and a dream to become the best prop on the planet.

‘The Tongan Thor’ Taniela Tupou wanted to put the Bro back into Brothers by reuniting with elder sibling Criff, who had signed with the club shortly before his arrival from New Zealand.

Former Randwick head coach Ben McCormack, then an assistant coach specialising in contact training at Brothers, took the raw 135kg teen under his wing for a crash course in rugby IQ.

“He had the physical presence of a Super Rugby player already, if not better, but he was just a big kid,” McCormack said.

STORY: How Tongan Thor overcame demons to spark 2019 World Cup run

“He just loved footy; super enthusiastic, full of energy, always goofing about, but his rugby IQ - he’d only been playing footy for a couple of years - it became clear that previously people had just used him because of his big body and not put much time into his rugby IQ.

“We started teaching him a lot of the intricacies around the breakdown and contact but he was a big sponge, keen to impress and keen to become the best version of himself.

“If you let him he would have been there an hour after training every day working on his drop-goals.”

Tupou became a popular figure around the club not least for his on-field exploits.

A non-drinker, Tupou found ways to get involved in post-match festivities that were more his speed.

“After games we’d have a few beers and ‘Nella used to duck down to the Maccas on the corner and get himself a family feast - four burgers, four chips, four drinks - down that and then come back to the club,” McCormack said.

“The boys would all be playing beer pong and 'Nella would want to play, but because he didn’t drink, we made a rule where he could substitute his beers with six-inch Subway sandwiches from the platters going around.

“The man can eat, and would eat, feet and feet of Subway sandwiches post-game.”

HOOKERS (3)

Matt Faessler

24, Queensland Reds, 1 Test

School: Toowoomba Grammar School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: USQ Saints, QLD

Senior Club: Brothers, QLD

Rookie Wallabies hooker Matt Faessler is one of a rare breed to cross Toowoomba rugby’s major dividing line and emerge beloved on both sides.

Matt Faessler played First XV rugby for Downlands College against arch rivals Toowoomba Grammar in a famous O’Callaghan Cup defeat in 2014 before swapping sides to complete his education in blue and gold.

The dynamic hooker was a force of nature in his senior year, scoring 10 tries as a mini-me clone of wide-running All Blacks hooker Dane Coles.

He became the first Toowoomba Grammar Wallaby since Jason Little in a test debut against the All Blacks in Dunedin earlier this year and impressed enough to earn a ticket to France.

His former TGS First XV coach Dave Enfantie said Faessler was a special talent.

“We are super proud,” Enfantie said.

“He’s done extremely well as a rugby player but he’s got a lot of friends and allies here just because of the person he is. He’s very well respected by all of the staff.

“He had a work ethic ingrained from day one. We had some good players in that year he came over from Downlands with Hamish Stewart and Harry Hoopert (Western Force) and BJ Oates (Brumbies) and he just slipped right into that.

“He was a great kid with supportive parents who was just thirsty for more.

“We’ve been saying for weeks that Eddie has just got to pick him and now he has.”

David Porecki

30, NSW Waratahs, 14 Tests

School: Redlands School, NSW

Junior Club: Seaforth Raiders, NSW

Senior Club: Manly, NSW

Two broken legs in just over 12 months could have been the end of Dave Porecki’s rugby career but those schoolboy setbacks instead forged the foundation stone of the late-bloomer’s Wallabies revival.

Playing at rugby minnow Redlands School in Sydney’s northern beaches, Porecki’s horror injury run through Year 11 and 12 would have been enough to kill the dream of professional sport in a player without the Waratah’s courage.

Not Porecki.

“He is unbelievable,” Porecki’s former First XV coach Jonathan Harvey said.

“He probably would have been a junior representative if not for the injuries, but it was those injuries which put him on the track of looking after his body better and working out in the gym. That became his way of getting back into rugby and it really set him up.”

Porecki returned via the Manly Marlins, again under Harvey as his Colts coach, and earned a Waratahs debut in 2015.

The chance to move overseas, to Saracens and then London Irish, was a fitting bridge between stints at the Tahs for a player whose journey has been as non-traditional as it gets.

“He’s had an amazing rise through his career. He was one of those boys who just worked and worked and worked,” Harvey said.

“Not the most skilled or talented but just the drive and maturity and the will to be the best. He socialises, he’s a hilarious guy, but he doesn’t drink and looks after himself really well.

“Some kids are touted from a young age but he wasn’t that, at a non-traditional rugby school it is always very difficult, but he just found a way.

“He’s done a different pathway to learn his craft but he has done amazing. We are so proud of what he has achieved.”

Jordan Uelese

26, Melbourne Rebels, 18 Tests

School: St Kevin’s College, VIC / St Patrick’s College Silverstream, NZ

Junior Club: Eltham Rugby Club, VIC

Senior Club: University of Melbourne, VIC

The first Wallaby to emerge from Victorian rugby nursery St Kevin’s College could face down a former schoolmate for a place in the Rugby World Cup final.

Rebels hooker Jordan Uelese won three Victorian Schools premierships in a row by the side of Sione Tuipolotu, whose Scottish heritage opened the door to a move north to represent the thistle.

That move could deliver the best mates onto a collision course in the semi-final.

“They are the best of mates,” said a St Kevin’s College coach who mentored both players, but asked for his identity not to be printed.

STORY: Uelese re-signs with Rugby Australia after cancer scare

“They are our second and third Rugby World Cup players, behind Marc L’Huillier (USA, 1999).”

Hometown Wallaby Uelese remains a hero to the students of St Kevin’s nine years after his graduation.

”Jordan was an amazingly talented and humble young man,” the coach said.

“When he reached the higher year levels he became like a pied piper of attention when he came down to training and all the underage teams were training in different corners of the pitch.

“He was always holding the pads for the little kids and tossing the ball to him. He was always helping them and playing with him

“Since he left the school he has continually been generous to the school, paying us visits and sharing his experiences with the developing squads we have got.”

Locks (4)

Richie Arnold

33, Stade Toulousain, 4 Tests

School: Murwillumbah High School, NSW

Junior Club: Gentlemen of Murwillumbah, NSW

Senior Club: Bond University, QLD / Wests, ACT

By 2010 only three players in international rugby history had ever stood 208cm or taller.

That is one reason why the third graders of Murwillumbah’s fledgling rugby club could hardly believe their luck when two more appeared on their doorstep, ready to try their hand at the Game They Play In Heaven.

Towering twins Richie and Rory Arnold, future Wallabies #965 and #891, were spotted playing touch rugby league in nearby Bilambil on the NSW Far North Coast when a quick-thinking Banana extended an invitation to come try the ‘other’ rugby code.

STORY: Murwillumbah to Wallabies in five years

“They’d played a bit of league and basketball growing up and had a bit of exposure to rugby but didn’t know much about it,” Murwillumbah player-coach Phil Lees said.

“They both jumped in and were really keen to learn. Straight away they were very athletic, they weren’t just big tall guys. They clearly had the basics of tackling and passing and catching down, they just needed to learn the intricacies of rugby.

“We’d walk onto the field and the you’d see the eyes and mouths of the other team just hanging open. Being a country club side, you’d pull into a pub on a bus trip and the whole pub would go quiet and turn around - a little bit Old West saloon style as the two terminators walked in.”

A rugby introduction, at No.8 for Rory and at inside centre for Richie, put the 208cm twins on the radar for higher honours.

But where Rory blossomed, making his Wallabies debut three years later, identical twin Richie’s development was slowed by a series of injuries that forced him to the sidelines.

“I remember having a conversation with the both of them where I said you are both going to be Wallabies one day,” Lees said.

“At the size you are, you are going to walk into any room and any rugby club and never be ignored. The difference is when you step into this next level you are going to have other guys your size who are just as hungry for success.

“The only thing that would stop them is their actions, and they have both taken it on.

“To me it’s a big step-up from guys who were just your average local athletes having a beer after every training session to be where they are now.”

Nick Frost

23, ACT Brumbies, 12 Tests

School: Knox Grammar School, NSW CAS

Junior Club: Hornsby Lions, NSW

Senior Club: Queanbeyan Whites, ACT

If Nick Frost wanted to use his remarkable size to steamroll opposition teams as a junior no-one could have stopped him from doing so, said Hornsby Rugby Club president Andrew Marren.

The mark of greatness in the 205cm man mountain is that he never wanted to.

“He was a bloody big kid, a man among men,” Marren said.

“When he’s a tick over two metres now he was always the big kid on the field.

“As a junior administrator you see a lot of good players coming through, but the difference between a good player and a really good player is making the players around him a lot better.

“While Nick stood out for his physical stature - the only thing he couldn’t do on the field was kick a goal - the way he played the game, involving his teammates, he clearly had that in his mind from very early on.

“He wasn’t the player to run through an entire team by himself even though he might have been able to. He just got team rugby from a very early age.”

The other great source of pride for Frost from the people who have known him longest is his capacity to give back.

Marren said Frost had never forgotten his roots at Berowra and Hornsby.

“He sent a lovely message to our kids on grand final day, identifying these kids by name, when he was in Wallabies camp,” he said.

“I asked Nick if we could auction him off as an ‘experience,’ whether that was lunch with the dads or a skill session for the kids, and he just absolutely - whatever raises the most money.

“We are so proud of him.”

Matt Philip

29, Melbourne Rebels, 28 Tests

School: St Augustine’s College, Brookvale, NSW

Junior Club: Newport Juniors, NSW

Senior Club: Sydney University, NSW

Matt Philip’s Wallaby destiny was obvious to those who watched him decoding the mysteries of opposition lineouts in real time for the St Augustine’s College, Brookvale First XV.

The broad-shouldered Australian Schoolboys representative towered above his peers and matched those physical gifts with maturity beyond his years, said College head of sport Jonathan Harvey.

“He thought about the game differently,” Harvey said.

“He was pretty mature for a young guy and he was a real lineout specialist. When most people were looking up to Stephen Larkham, he loved Nathan Sharpe and his work in the lineout.

“He was able to figure out other teams’ calls pretty quickly and then dismantle their line-up pretty well.

“He pushed himself beyond everyone else. Most guys playing at school or in Colts are thinking about the parties or what they were doing after a win but he made sure he ate his food, did his stretching and warm-downs.

“It was always obvious he was going to take his footy to the top level and he’s managed to do that.

Will Skelton (c)

31, La Rochelle, 28 Tests

School: The Hills Sports High School, NSW

Junior Club: -

Senior Club: Sydney University, NSW

The first Wallaby captain to emerge from a public school in 15 years could prove a beacon for the game in the non-traditional corridors that rugby has historically struggled to penetrate.

It has been more than four decades since Matraville High’s magnificent Mark Ella first captained the Wallabies in 1982.

Since then, two of the next 27 skippers to lead Australia have done so without a graduate certificate from a private school: George Smith (Cromer High, NSW) and Chris Whitaker (Sydney Boys High, NSW).

Will Skelton, a product of The Hills Sports High in Sydney’s west, will follow in those trailblazing footsteps in France.

Although the honour was unexpected, Skelton’s first rugby coach backed the titanic Wallaby to galvanise a young squad behind him.

“It probably came as a shock to Will himself but he will take it on board and run with it,” declared The Hills’ Andrew Tetley.

“He’s always been a lead-by-example person but he will be vocal when he deems it necessary.

“He will do a good job, I have no doubt of that, because he’s the sort that people want to follow, that they want to listen to, respect and work behind.”

Tetley has watched with pride as Skelton grew from a super-sized schoolboy to a giant of the global game.

Skelton was still a teenager when he was pointed in the direction of a career in rugby union.

“He started off in the rugby league program and then as his body shape continued to grow at about 15 or 16 it was obvious that rugby was calling,” Tetley said.

“We always encouraged our kids to play both so they develop skills in either code, so it doesn’t necessarily close the door on one or the other.

“He certainly had natural ability. He had a significant size advantage over his contemporaries at those ages but he was always learning how to use it wisely in the right situation.”

Back Row (5)

Langi Gleeson

22, NSW Waratahs, 3 Tests

School: St Augustine’s College, Brookvale, NSW / Cromer High School, NSW

Junior Club: Harbord Harlequins, NSW

Senior Club: Manly, NSW

A red headgear revolution is taking over St Augustine’s College, Brookvale, and one man is to blame.

Rampaging Langi Gleeson has given the Waratahs the punch from No.8 the club has searched for since the retirement of Wycliff Palu.

The Rugby World Cup is about to feel Gleeson’s sting and students from his alma mater on Sydney’s northern beaches couldn’t be more excited, said College First XV coach Brian Burke.

“We do have more red headgear popping up. To be honest it’s nice to have kids emulating a rugby player again over a rugby league player,” Burke said.

“They don’t have many role models they can hang their hats on so it’s good you’ve got a kid like Langi.”

There are tales aplenty from Gleeson’s dominant First XV years at the school but the best of them brings a positive omen for World Cup success.

“We went to the Sanix World tournament in 2018 representing Australia, and England’s representation was Exeter College who actually wore white jerseys. St Augustine’s wear a gold jersey so it was virtually Australia vs England,” Burke said.

“England had lost a pool game the day before so were playing for their lives. We were down by three and then that red headgear just came smashing through to drag a few players over the line and we knocked England out of the tournament, so I hope that can be an omen.

“He’s that quick, that explosive, and that’s been his key feature. He’s got a great pair of hips that can break tackles and when you combine that with his acceleration, he has the x-factor that every team wants.”

Gleeson is the youngest forward in the Wallaby pack for France.

Tom Hooper

22, ACT Brumbies, 3 Tests

School: St Stanislaus’ College, NSW

Junior Club: Bathurst Bulldogs

Senior Club: Tuggeranong, ACT

Bathurst rugby loyalists hope World Cup lightning can strike twice at the foot of Mount Panorama when local flanker Tom Hooper jets off for France.

Bush fullback Marty Roebuck was the last Bathurst product to don Wallaby gold, wearing Australia’s No.15 jersey in the 1991 World Cup triumph over England.

Now the next generation of rugby union star from the 50,000-strong regional centre is flying back to Europe hoping to match his feat, three decades later.

Bathurst Bulldogs president Phil Newton said Hooper left with the congratulations of the entire club and community.

“We’ve had a few Wallabies for a small country town. Marty Roebuck would have been our last and it would be very nice to see Tom win a Rugby World Cup too,” Newton said.

“He’s only a young man who has got a lot in front of him. The world is his oyster at the moment and we cannot congratulate him enough on what he has done. It is magnificent.”

Humble Hooper is favourite to replace legendary skipper Michael at openside flanker for the tournament.

It’s a long way from the self-confessed big kid who attempted to convince locals this week he didn’t display potential as a youngster.

Newton, who played with Hooper’s old man Lloyd, wasn’t buying it.

“He was always a big lad with plenty of ability,” he said.

“He thinks he was a big boy who didn’t look like he had a lot of potential but he’s done a lot of hard work. He was in the First XV (at St Stanislaus’) as a young guy, in Grade 9 or 10, and continued to build on it. He’s taken every opportunity that’s been presented to him.”

And while Hooper may be the first Wallaby in three decades from Bathurst, locals tip the wait will be shorter for their next.

Lachlan Hooper, 19, captained the Australian U20s team earlier this year and is already fighting towards a senior Brumbies debut alongside his elder brother.

Rob Leota

26, Melbourne Rebels, 16 Tests

School: Thornbury High School, VIC

Junior Club: Northern Panthers, VIC

Senior Club: University of Melbourne, VIC

Wallabies enforcer Rob Leota may have been lost to rugby entirely over a pre-teen skin affliction, according to the club official who guided the future flanker to the sport.

Northern Panthers president Grant Wason had played rugby with Leota’s father and had known the youngster since he was born.

Wason was Leota’s year level co-ordinator in his first year at Melbourne’s Thornbury High and took it upon himself to nudge him towards the sport when he spotted his absence on the Panthers’ books.

“He wasn’t playing rugby when he arrived at school in Year 7, so I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘why aren’t you playing?’ Wason said.

“He looked at me a little bit stunned and apparently it had an impact and he came down to the club.

“At the time he had a skin affliction and he was a little embarrassed about it. I think that was it more than anything else, and credit to his family, they never put pressure on the lad to play. “When he did make the decision they were very supportive.”

Leota flourished at the rugby club, reconnecting with his Samoan culture by playing in teams loaded with relatives immediate and extended.

There were still flirtations with other codes but they didn’t last long.

“They put him in the ruck in the school’s football team (Aussie rules) when he was in senior,” Wason recalled.

“I remember Rob looking very sheepish that they’d allowed him to play. I don’t think the team did particularly well but they would have relied on him as the tallest and biggest boy.

“He was an extraordinary athlete. When it came to the school 100m sprint final he was beaten by half a metre by a very, very quick boy, and for someone that size to be running that quickly was extraordinary.”

Fraser McReight

24, Queensland Reds, 12 Tests

School: Brisbane Grammar School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Albany Creek Brumbies, QLD

Senior Club: Brothers, QLD

Rising flanker Fraser McReight is the closest player the Wallabies have got to legendary All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, according to Queensland school rugby encyclopaedia Ron Cochrane.

The former Brisbane Grammar coach and head of sport helped develop three Wallabies over 39 years at the school and tipped McReight would be the fourth before the flanker’s 14th birthday.

A decade later, Cochrane believes McReight’s skills have grown even more advanced than three-time World Rugby Player of the Year McCaw’s at the same age.

“Fraser is the closest thing we’ve got to Richie McCaw. He’s got the skills of Richie,” Cochrane declared.

“Richie’s game evolved throughout his career, which says volumes about Richie, but Fraser’s set of skills are better than Richie’s were at the same age. Fraser has got the lot and as his body matures he will get even better.”

McReight will be 24 years and 189 days old when the Wallabies take on France in the final warm-up match before the World Cup begins.

McCaw had won 20 of 23 tests by the same age, having featured in almost double McReight’s 12 tests.

Cochrane hailed McReight’s character as a young man as his finest junior trait, revealing the flanker had rejected poaching offers from rivals to stick by his mates in a difficult era for the First XV.

“He had a great sense of character. He’s so loyal - he’s a bit of an old-fashioned player,” Cochrane said.

“A number of schools offered him scholarships and he stuck with his mates.

“He played First XV in Year 10 at inside centre. He was outstanding there, and the last two years he played at No.7 or No.8. I believe he is the finest No.8 the school has ever produced.”

At times it appeared McReight was playing single-handedly, keeping BGS in games through sheer force of will.

Rob Valetini

24, ACT Brumbies, 34 Tests

School: Westall Secondary College, VIC

Junior Club: Melbourne Harlequins, VIC

Senior Club: Wests, ACT

Wallabies hit man Rob Valetini’s tackles delivered so much force as an eight-year-old that parents in his Melbourne Harlequins junior team would flinch behind their tackle bags upon impact.

Valetini’s rib-rattling shots on the international stage spark deja vu among parents like John Carey, who remember all too well the days when they were on the receiving end.

“In the under-eights it was still touch but towards the end of the year we would get out the tackle bags just so the kids could start to tackle,” Carey said.

“You’d get the parents holding the tackle bags and no one wanted to hold for Rob because he would tackle so hard.”

The potent combination of size, strength and infallible technique magnified Valetini’s tackle force to the point where the future Wallaby was parachuted into the Harlequins first grade team by the age of 17.

“He was always a very talented player,” said Carey, whose son was joined at the hip with Valetini all through junior rugby.

“Everyone now sees the physical side of things but he’s always been technically very good. He was always crunching people in tackles and he was very committed.

“He was the youngest of nine and most nights they’d go out into the backyard to play rugby, including his dad (Manueli, former Harlequins first grader), and it wasn’t touch.

“From a very young age he was used to tackling and being tackled by much bigger kids so when it got to Saturday and he was playing juniors there was no fear for him.”

Carey said Valetini’s mother Finau had told him Valetini had dreamed of being a Wallaby since he was seven.

Next month he will live out that reality on rugby’s grandest stage.

Scrumhalves (3)

Issak Fines-Leleiwasa

27, Western Force, uncapped

School: The Southport School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Port Douglas Reef Raiders

Senior Club: Sunnybank, QLD

There were valid fears among Issak Fines-Leleiwasa’s old teachers that the dreadlocked scrumhalf’s Wallabies dream had passed him by.

Eddie Jones bucked half a century of tradition by calling up the uncapped Western Force playmaker who will celebrate his 28th birthday at the Rugby World Cup.

Fines-Leleiwasa became the oldest Australian to debut in the position since 1973 and the fourth oldest Wallaby halfback debutant of all time against France.

His selection was greatest selection shock in a squad reveal chock-full of them, but The Southport School product’s old coach Mike Wallace can see why Jones was drawn to the No.9.

“Issak is a completely different halfback to almost anyone else running around in the country at the moment,” the former Auckland Rugby Union high performance manager said.

“If you watch him play he is very dynamic and explosive around the ruck. That ability to become a genuine threat around the edges of the ruck and challenge those inside defenders, then release a pass to create space on the edges, is the best I’ve ever seen.”

It is high praise from the mentor who first pushed the Far North Queensland product into the No.9 role.

Fines-Leleiwasa was a rising star touch footballer and rugby union winger when he trialled for the school’s First XV.

It was at Wallace’s suggestion that Fines-Leleiwasa moved infield, winning a place in the team in 2013 and a Queensland Schools jersey along the way.

A decorated club career in Brisbane put the halfback on the Super Rugby radar.

“He bounced around the Force and Brumbies but never lost sight of his goal to play for the Wallabies,” Wallace said.

“Finesy was a pretty laidback character but he really enjoys working hard and that’s been him over his whole career. He works hard and does it with a smile on his face, which is just as well because he’s had to do everything the hard way since leaving school.”

OLDEST WALLABY HALFBACK DEBUTANTS

1. Eric Tindall, 1973 v Tonga (28 years and 306 days)

2. Bernard Schulte, 1946 v New Zealand (28 years and 289 days)

3. Austin Gralton, 1899 v Great Britain (28 years and 135 days)

4. Issak Fines-Leleiwasa, 2023 (27 years and 330 days)

5. Don Logan, 1958 v New Zealand Maori (27 years and 135 days)

Tate McDermott (vc)

24, Queensland Reds, 25 Tests

School: Sunshine Coast Grammar School, QLD

Junior Club: Flinders Rugby Club, QLD

Senior Club: University of Queensland, QLD

Tate McDermott was a second-choice scrumhalf at Sunshine Coast Grammar School until a Year 10 rugby tour to Europe awakened the competitive spirit that has led to his return to the continent with the Wallabies.

Former school head of rugby Dan Robotham recalled the moment McDermott burst out of the shadows to stake his claim on a First XV jersey he would hold for the next three years.

“We were playing against a team from Oxford in the UK and it was pretty narky early. A couple of minutes in Tate got knocked really hard off the ball into the crowd and they gave him a bit of a spray - ‘surf’s up,’ or something of that nature - and you could just see something change in him.

“He just absolutely cut them to pieces. I think he scored three tries and they just couldn’t touch him. You could see that competitive aspect take off.”

McDermott’s rugby career took off from there, earning Queensland Schoolboys selection in his senior year and an Aussie 7s debut before his 18th birthday.

A decade on, England may live to regret that schoolboy barb on the historic playing fields of Oxford University.

Without it, one of Australia’s most dynamic attacking weapons may never have awoken from his slumber.

Nic White

33, ACT Brumbies, 63 Tests

School: St. Gregory’s College, Campbelltown, NSW / All Saint’s College, Maitland, NSW / St Joseph’s High School, Aberdeen, NSW

Junior Club: Muswellbrook Heelers, NSW

Senior Club: Queanbeyan, ACT / Eastwood, NSW / Wests, ACT

Nic White is famous for three things: a moustache straight out of the 19th century, playing halfback for the Wallabies, and the cheekiest streak in Australian rugby - and not necessarily in that order.

Long before the ‘Mo and the Green and Gold, White’s quirky sense of humour blossomed on the back paddocks of Muswellbrook, 90 minutes north-west of Newcastle.

“Cheeky is the best way of putting it. He was pretty cheeky as a young fella and he has not changed,” White’s former Heelers team manager Greg Buckley said.

“He was always destined to be a halfback, he had that halfback swagger, that halfback’s lip, but he was that good he could play anywhere he wanted.

“He was skillful, to the point where we had another kid who went on to play in the Shute Shield, Harry Bennett, who was a goalkicker and one of Nick’s best mates. Whenever Nick would score a try he would try to score as wide as possible to make it harder for Harry.”

In a junior team that contained future professionals in Bennett (Major League Rugby) and Brad Murray (Roosters, Parramatta in the NRL) White’s skills stood tall above the rest, Buckley said.

“Nic by far, even at 11, had that skill. In Under-11s you don’t get to smash-tackle blokes and I reckon Nic used to get upset that he couldn’t smash blokes.

“You can never say at 11 a kid is going to ‘make it’ but we had a couple of kids in that age group and he definitely had the talent.”

Flyhalves (1)

Carter Gordon

22, Melbourne Rebels, 4 Tests

School: Brisbane Boys’ College, QLD GPS / Sunshine Coast Grammar School, QLD

Junior Club: Sunshine Coast Grammar School Rugby Club, QLD

Senior Club: Wests, QLD

Wallabies playmaker Carter Gordon could go down as the greatest tackling flyhalf in rugby union history, according to the former England international who coached him as a schoolboy.

Ex-Queensland Reds flyhalf Shane Drahm was stuck behind the great Jonny Wilkinson in England’s No.10 ranks in the mid-2000s and observed first-hand the traits that made him one of rugby’s finest defensive playmakers.

After returning to Australia Drahm was appointed head coach of Brisbane Boys’ College, where he mentored rising schoolboy Gordon in 2017 and 2018.

“I remember talking to coaches even back then, saying this kid ticks all the boxes,” Drahm said.

“I said he will be one of the best, if not the best, tackling No.10s in the world, ever. Everyone probably thinks of Jonny Wilkinson when you think about a great defensive No.10. He used to put on a lot of big hits, but from an all-around point of view Carter is the better tackler. And that’s a big wrap.”

There are few clear weaknesses in Gordon’s game but the same relentless pursuit of excellence that drove Wilkinson could be considered the Sunshine Coast product’s achilles heel.

Managing the pressure Gordon put on himself was often Drahm’s chief concern, a caution Eddie Jones must heed in France.

“He was extremely competitive and with that came a real seriousness to him. At times probably a bit too serious,” Drahm said.

“I didn’t see as him not being able to deal with general pressure, it was all self-inflicted and mostly against himself. He wanted to be the perfect player every game, he put all the pressure on himself.

“I saw a bit of that in his first game (against New Zealand at the MCG) but I think he’ll be a better World Cup flyhalf because of those mistakes in the first game.

“Eddie Jones made a couple of comments about his mistakes and how he has to make those mistakes as young fellas to learn from them.

“If he’d had the perfect game in his first game he wouldn’t be as good a flyhalf for this World Cup, I’ll guarantee you that.”

Centres (4)

Lalakai Foketi

28, NSW Waratahs, 5 Tests

School: The King’s School, NSW AAGPS / Balgowlah Boys’ High School, NSW

Junior Club: Manly Roos, NSW

Senior Club: Manly, NSW

Lalakai Foketi rejected immense overseas interest to live out his dream of representing his adopted homeland at a Rugby World Cup.

Former Manly Roos president Allan Dodd became like a grandfather to Foketi and his father when the family moved to Sydney from New Zealand in 2005.

He said Foketi had come to him to discuss his future, weighing up lucrative overseas contracts against his ambition to don the Green and Gold in France.

“We sat down and talked and I spoke with his dad,” Dodd said.

“There was one amazing offer and he knocked it back because he wanted to play for the Wallabies and play at a World Cup. That’s a testament to his work ethic and his loyalty.”

Foketi made up one half of Sydney’s most successful junior odd-couple as the centre partner in crime to future Wallaby Reece Hodge at the Manly Roos.

Hodge and Foketi former made up a 10-12 axis well-balanced both on and off the field.

While superboot Hodge was extroverted and outgoing, Foketi won supporters over with his humility and willingness to perform the thankless tasks.

“I honestly couldn’t think of anyone with a bad word to say for him, as a kid or as an adult,” Dodd said.

“He was always the one to come and help me pick up the cones. As president you set the grounds up and as the other kids were wandering off he and his dad would be there getting involved, cleaning up. He’s just a ‘put-in’ kind of person.

“It hasn’t been the easiest journey for him, after he went over to France very young for his first foray out of the Australian U20s, but I think where things got going for him were a couple of years at Bay of Plenty. That gave him that tougher edge and he’s kicked on since then.

“I can’t wait to head over and watch him.”

Samu Kerevi

29, Urayasu D-Rocks (Japan), 45 Tests

School: Brisbane State High School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Souths, QLD

Senior Club: GPS, QLD / Souths, QLD

Samu Kerevi is the most destructive ball-carrying centre on the planet today but wasn’t considered good enough to be a backline regular for his school team in 2011.

Kerevi was shunted between stints in the Brisbane State High Second XV and lock in the First XV, with another future Wallaby in Chris Feauai-Sautia casting a long shadow in the centres.

It wasn’t until Kerevi reached club rugby that his rise to Wallaby gold began to pick up steam.

Former Queensland Reds attack coach Shane Arnold and his staff took Kerevi under their wing at Brisbane’s GPS Ashgrove and unlocked the game-breaking potential within him.

“He came down to GPS as a big, hard ball-running centre who was probably not as as athletic as he is now,” Arnold said.

“That’s down to the fact that he has worked so hard to get himself into the physical condition he is. He’s got a personality where if he puts his mind to it he’ll get it done.

“Underneath it all he always had the talent, he just hadn’t really thought of it as a progression and hadn’t put the time and energy into rugby.”

Arnold hailed Kerevi as a prime example of the Australian rugby pathway in action.

“He played colts at GPS, progressed to Premier Grade and then the Australian U20s, the NRC, the Reds and now the Wallabies,” Arnold said.

“He stepped up through the grades and kept playing well. It didn’t seem to matter what grade he played, as he went up it never affected his performance.

“GPS got into a grand final that year against Easts and to be honest that was on the back of some of his performances all year.”

Izaia Perese

26, NSW Waratahs, 5 Tests

School: Anglican Church Grammar School, QLD GPS / St Edmund’s College, Ipswich, QLD AIC / Wavell State High School, QLD

Junior Club: Easts, QLD

Senior Club: Easts, QLD / Randwick, NSW

Even in one of the greatest schoolboy teams seen in Australian rugby there was no hiding the genuine starpower behind Izaia Perese.

Then aged 15, the future Wallaby scored 16 tries in eight games from outside centre in the 2014 Churchie First XV.

The team featured 11 future professionals in its squad, including two Wallabies and two State of Origin Maroons, and swept all before it in a historically dominant season.

With so many stars only the brightest could stand out - and future Waratahs assistant Jason Gilmore, then Churchie’s coach, said Perese was among the brightest of them all.

“He was one of our genuine players,” Gilmore said.

“I remember when he first played Queensland Under-16s, at 15 years old, and what he was doing at that tournament you could tell he had a point of difference.

CHURCHIE 2014 FIRST XV SQUAD

Wallabies (2): Izaia Perese; Liam Wright

Super Rugby (6): Angus Wagner; Richie Asiata; Angus Scott-Young; Mack Mason; Sam Wallis; Harry Hockings

NRL (3): Kalyn Ponga; Jaydn Su’A; Brodie Croft

“When you saw him as a young bloke you could definitely tell that there were bigger things ahead for him.”

Having reunited with Perese at New South Wales in late 2020, Gilmore said what impressed him most about the centre today was how he had turned his life around off the field.

A code-hop to the Brisbane Broncos two years prior had ended in criminal charges, leaving the then 23-year-old to take a career lifeline in France.

He was released by Top 14 club Bayonne after five games to rebuild his life under his old school coach at the Waratahs.

“I think he’s matured off the field,” Gilmore said.

“It’s been documented the troubles he had through the Broncos and his French stint. Not being around his family was a tough period for him.

“He’s got his family with him down in Sydney now. He’s a father with three kids and he’s gone through some tough times to come out the other side.

“I just like the resilience to get through what he has. He’s not the first to go through it and he won’t be the last but he has made it through.”

Jordan Petaia

23, Queensland Reds, 27 Tests

School: Brisbane State High School, QLD GPS

Junior Club: Wests, QLD

Senior Club: Wests, QLD

A schoolboy duel with a future State of Origin superstar was all the proof Dan Ritchie needed to know Jordan Petaia would make it to the next level.

Petaia had won the premiership at Brisbane State High School in his 2016 Grade 11 season but faced the herculean task of defending the crown as the school’s only returning star in 2017.

Brisbane Norths premier grade coach Ritchie, then State High’s director of rugby, said Petaia’s individual heroics that season convinced him a brighter future in the sport lay waiting.

“I can still remember some of those games in Year 12 and one in particular, where he was playing fullback for State High and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Queensland State of Origin representative) was playing fullback for Brisbane Grammar,” Ritchie said.

“Grammar ended up winning but it was four tries to Hamiso and three tries to Jordy. It was a genuine shootout between the two fullbacks and even though State High lost the game you looked at those two and they just oozed class.

“From my perspective it was a matter of when, not if, he was going to make something of himself, and he proved that less than 12 months out of school.”

Petaia made his Super Rugby debut for Queensland months later and earned a shock call-up to join Michael Cheika’s World Cup squad before his 19th birthday.

Through it all Petaia has remained true to himself, according to Ritchie.

“He was pretty quiet at school. Very softly spoken and extremely humble, there was just no fuss about him,” he said.

“In some people’s eyes he came out of nowhere but he has worked extremely hard.”

Outside Backs (5)

Max Jorgensen

18, NSW Waratahs, uncapped

School: St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill, NSW AAGPS

Junior Club: Balmain Wolves, NSW

Senior Club: -

The First XV coach who watched Max Jorgensen rise from schoolboy sensation to a World Cup Wallaby in less than 12 months believes the teenager is only scratching the surface of his potential.

Not since Kurtley Beale’s historic 2006 season has a teen tyro from St Joseph’s College electrified Australian rugby like Jorgensen.

While Beale took the best part of three years to earn his Wallabies debut in 2009, Jorgensen could play his first barely 12 months after raising the AAGPS trophy.

Greg Thompson, the school coach who first blooded Jorgensen as an outside centre in his First XV in Year 10, said the sky was the limit for how far Jorgensen could go.

“He’s been on such a growth journey over the last 12 months, going from literally 12 months ago playing in a First XV to the Wallabies,” Thompson said.

“He’s exceeded all expectations in the last 12 months and I really think the sky is the limit for him.

“You don’t get 18-year-olds where professional teams pass him the ball to make stuff happen. He’s one of those players that come along once in a generation, where the Waratahs pass him the ball to try and create something – and I think the same could happen for the Wallabies.

“His ability to beat a man one-on-one is amazing but also to be able to draw and pass and do all the right things, he is just a complete player in attack and defence.”

Thompson said the introverted fullback had flown under the radar in his younger years but that came to an end in Year 10.

After dazzling in an internal trial Thompson deployed the fullback out of position, in the hardest position to defend on the field, in a head-to-head clash against future Parramatta Eels NRL star Will Penisini.

“From the very first moment he looked like a first grader,” Thompson said.

“For a Grade 10 player to slot straight in and do that was impressive.”

After Covid stole Jorgensen’s Year 11 season he returned to captain the First XV from fullback, leading Joeys to an undefeated premiership.

“He was just in his own world,” Thompson said.

“That’s where he started scoring four tries per game. Even though we had some great players around hi it got to a stage at some periods where it was just ‘give the ball to Max’, like in under-10s, except this was the First XV.”

Andrew Kellaway

27, Melbourne Rebels, 23 Tests

School: The Scots College, NSW AAGPS

Junior Club: Hunters Hill Rugby Club, NSW

Senior Club: Randwick, NSW

There was never any trouble spotting fullback Andrew Kellaway in action as a junior at Hunters Hill Rugby Club, not least because of his “flaming” red hair.

Former club president Luke McCormack said Kellaway’s reputation for outstanding play was well known across the city from his earliest days.

“He always stuck out, with that flaming red hair,’ McCormack said.

““He was always the kid who when the opposition was playing him they knew he was the one they needed to stop.

“He was a natural standout, right through his juniors, was one of the best kids in Sydney and you could always tell that.”

An early career in the midfield soon gave way to fullback, where Kellaway continued to hold the rudder from the rear of the field.

It was the position he shot to acclaim at The Scots College, captaining both the school First XV and the Australian Schoolboys in his senior season in 2013.

“What you see is what you get with Andrew,” McCormack reflected.

“He was a very popular player and always very happy to give back to the club.

“His dad Ian is a life member so the Kellaway family is synonymous with Hunters Hill. There won’t be a weekend you don’t spot a Kellaway on the sidelines at Boronia Park.”

Marika Koroibete

31, Saitama Wild Knights (Japan), 55 Tests

School: Nasinu Secondary School, Fiji

Junior Club: -

Senior Club: Souths, QLD

The Suva schoolmaster who nurtured Marika Koroibete’s rugby career told the teenager to leave Fiji and never look back in the pursuit of a lifechanging overseas sporting career.

Nasinu Secondary School rugby coach Dan Vakamoce said he was not surprised that Koroibete had overcome his humble beginnings to become one of the finest wingers in rugby.

The son of farmers in the highlands above the Fijian capital, Koroibete was a nationally ranked sprinter when Vakanoce drafted the 17-year-old into the school U19 team that contested the 2009 national championship final.

Even then Koroibete was a man of few words.

“In terms of telling you stories, no, he is not that kind of person,” Vakamoce said.

“They only way you can see he speaks to you is if you tell him to do something, he will press forward and do it no matter what.”

Koroibete was so shy at 17 that he had to be convinced to take the starting blocks in the 100m final at Fiji’s national athletics carnival.

When the announcer called his name Vakamoce found Koroibete hiding in a nearby field, insisting he couldn’t go out in front of all those people.

Despite his cocktail of speed, power and endurance, the youngster’s rugby skills were bare bones then.

“Whenever you give the ball to him he would only run straight at you. No sidestepping, no kicking, no high ball and all that stuff,” Vakamoce said.

“He has really grown as a rugby player but I am not surprised because I knew he had the potential.

“When he came to Australia in 2010 (on a Fijian Secondary Schools rugby league tour), his first time to go out of Fiji, I told him, ‘you forget about Fiji. You don’t think about coming back to Fiji. You are going to a place that people are dreaming of going. You work hard, believe in yourself and you will succeed because you have the potential and skills there with you. You go there and they will teach you to be the real Marika - the one who is inside you.’”

The roar of the crowd holds no fear for Koroibete now.

“I’m very proud of him,” Vakamoce said.

“He is not just my student, he is like my family. Now he is at his second World Cup and he’s one of the top wingers in the world. I am over the moon.”

Mark Nawaqanitawase

22, NSW Waratahs, 6 Tests

School: St Patrick’s College, Strathfield, NSW

Junior Club: Wests Juniors, NSW

Senior Club: Eastwood, NSW

Mark Nawaqanitawase’s aerial abilities could have taken him to college basketball instead of the Rugby World Cup if not for a parent-teacher interview intervention at 14 years of age.

The St Patrick’s College, Strathfield student had given away rugby union to play basketball for the school in Grade 8 when First XV coach Anthony Calabassy stepped in with a last-minute appeal to his mother.

“I was teaching his older brother at the time and I spoke to Mark’s mum at the parent-teacher interview, after discussing her other son, and said, ‘what’s this I hear about Mark not picking rugby?” Calabassy said.

“She goes, ‘I don’t know, is it too late for him?’ and I told her no. He came back in term two and basically said he wanted to play rugby now.”

That sliding doors moment has delivered Australia a world-class finishing threat that could help the Wallabies end its 24-year William Webb Ellis Cup drought.

The basketball skills that almost cost the nation a World Cup starter have helped Nawaqanitawase become a dominant force down the sidelines.

“We had Adam Doueihi (Wests Tigers NRL star) at flyhalf and Mark probably had the next best set of ball skills, being a basketballer, so we ended up playing him at fullback in Year 10,’ Calabassy said.

“He had that ability to see space and offload, and he was doing that at school. He wanted to play in the centres in Year 12 and his job was to draw attention and if he could get the offload away boys would run off him.

“He was displaying those skills we see at the Waratahs and Wallabies now at St Pat’s for sure.”

Suliasi Vunivalu

27, Queensland Reds, 2 Tests

School: Saint Kentigern College, NZ / Lelean Memorial School, Fiji

Junior club: -

Senior Club: Wests, QLD

A household name in the NRL, via Fiji and New Zealand’s St Kentigern College, Suliasi Vunivalu’s rugby journey has been characterised by a battle against his own body.

Multiple hamstrings threatened to derail Vunivalu’s high profile code hop to the Queensland Reds.

The 192cm, 100kg flyer has fought back to full strength just in time for the World Cup.

Utilities (2)

Ben Donaldson

23, NSW Waratahs, 2 Tests

School: Waverley College, NSW CAS

Junior Club: Clovelly Eagles, NSW

Senior Club: Radnwick, NSW

A former Waverley College First XV teammate believes Ben Donaldson will deliver if called upon to pull on the Wallabies No.10 jersey in France.

Donaldson was selected as a specialist utility, but with only Carter Gordon named at flyhalf, shapes as the Wallabies first reserve No.10.

Lachlan Drew-Morris won a premiership by Donaldson’s side at Waverly and backed the Western Force recruit to thrive under the pressure of calling the shots for Australia at a Rugby World Cup.

“If it comes down to it he will be ready,” Drew-Morris declared.

“Back in school he definitely delivered under pressure. He won two comps at school and won a lot of games at Randwick in first grade. It’s been there in glimpses at the Tahs.

“He’s had some moments where he hasn’t handled that but it’s hard to call the shots (as a young flyhalf) at the Waratahs when you’ve got other guys overriding you or trying to out-do each other.

“In the last two years he’s shown in patches that he can really own that No.10 jersey. He had a really good game earlier this year against the Drua where he took the game on and scored most of their points, which was a really good moment for him to show what he can do.”

Donaldson was launched into his First XV career at Waverley without a trial game and shone immediately.

Drew-Morris, a senior in the team, said the Year 11’s impact was so great he knew he would be a “special” player.

“He was quiet but he could show off from time to time. He was a really nice kid,” Drew-Morris reflected.

“He was very diligent with his footy and he’s got a really smart football IQ. He’s not about himself, he gives people the opportunity, and that’s like him off the field too.

“He was definitely nervous before the squad reveal. Being in that utility role can work for you and against you (for selection) and once he found out he was just over the moon. It’s something he’s wanted to do for all his career. He’s really grateful for the opportunity to go over there.”

Josh Kemeny

24, Melbourne Rebels, 1 Test

School: Cranbrook School, NSW CAS

Junior Club: Easts Rugby Club

Senior Club: Sydney University, NSW

Backrower Josh Kemeny’s ‘utility’ tag for the Rugby World Cup could see Eddie Jones spring a selection switcheroo by deploying the Melbourne Rebel as a supersized centre or winger.

His former Cranbrook First XV coach Michael Hodge once considered the same move and declared Kemeny’s rare athleticism could see him become a Wallaby weapon on the wing.

“We had conversations about him playing in the backs,” Hodge revealed.

“We played him at No.8 but he was so athletic we could have played him on the wing, and I think that’s one of the reasons Eddie has picked him as a utility.

“He was a skinny little beanpole in Year 11 but over that summer he developed really well athletically. As a kid his running gait wasn’t great but when he hit 17 and 18 he worked on his running technique and became very athletic. He turned from a gangly kid into a finely tuned athlete – then he exploded in his Year 12 season.”

Cranbrook won games on the back of Kemeny’s linebreaking ability, including a memorable upset over Barker that saw Kemeny carry the underdogs to victory almost single-handedly, Hodge said.

Deprived of his shot at an Australian Schoolboys jersey through a Year 12 knee injury, Kemeny earned a Super Rugby contract through the Shute Shield with Sydney Uni.

A Wallabies wider squad call-up in 2021 was cut short through another major knee injury, ruling him out of the 2022 Super Rugby season.

“He had built up such maturity and resilience through his injuries,” Hodge said.

“Now he gets his opportunity and I know he will do everyone so proud. Rest assured he is doing everything he can on and off the field to make sure he is ready to go. He is that sort of kid.”