Noah Lolesio gets his chance to impress

Noah Lolesio gets his chance to impress

Wallabies flyhalf Noah Lolesio is set to start against the Springboks on Saturday with assistant coach Dan McKellar saying “he gets his chance this week”.

 

While the official team announcement will happen on Thursday, McKellar has seemingly leaked the starting flyhalf in a press conference after earmarking Lolesio's return alongside Nic White.

 

“He’s trained well while he has been in the side,” McKellar said.

 

“He was close to playing in Argentina. But that’s a position that hasn’t been nailed yet by an individual or owned.

 

“He gets his chance this week. He’s got Whitey on his inside who he knows very well - they’ve got a very good combination, have played a lot of footy together, so that should be really good cohesion.


 

“Now he’s just got to go out there and do his job within our plan.”

 
 
Lolesio has earned 12 test caps to date having debuted against New Zealand in Sydney two years ago.
 
 
The Brumbies playmaker started all three test matches against England in July after Quade Cooper was sidelined with a calf injury minutes before the first test kicked off.
 
 
He missed out on selection for the first test against Argentina when Cooper returned and missed the second when the experienced head of James O'Connor was preferred.
 
 
Now with Cooper injured and O'Connor omitted from the squad, Lolesio looks set to take over the starting role with Bernard Foley likely to make his return to test rugby via the bench or in latter tests.
 
 
McKellar added that it is important that the talented playmaker stays within the structures of the game plan and not overplay his hand.
 
 

“My advice there is he doesn’t need to go there and think he needs to be the best player on the field,” McKellar said.


 

“He needs to do the basics well and direct us around the park and manage the game well.

 

“Understand when we’ve got momentum, understand when we don’t have momentum and how we handle that. Play the game in the right areas of the field and that’s what his job is.

 

“If he does that and he’s really solid that’s a tick in the box for him.

 

“So I don’t think it’s about him going out there thinking he’s got to create a whole lot of opportunity for others. It’s just about doing his role well.”

 
 
 
 

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