Brumbies snag schoolboy sensation

[Evie]

Brumbies snag schoolboy sensation
Chris Wilson - The Canberra Times

The NSW Waratahs have Kurtley Beale, the Queensland Reds have Quade Cooper, but the ACT Brumbies are banking on their own schoolboy sensation to replace superstar Stephen Larkham.

Matt Toomua will complete Year 12 at Brisbane State High School this year before graduating to the Super14 as the potential Brumbies flyhalf.

The Brumbies beat the Reds and Western Force to sign Toomua, who dominated Beale and Quade as a 16-year-old at last year's Australian Schoolboys Carnival in Canberra.

Quade was Queensland first-choice flyhalf, but the younger Toomua led Queensland II to championship victory, scoring all his team's 14 points in the final.

Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher said Toomua, now 17, was an exciting prospect. "Cooper and Beale were both at that championships and he wasn't outshone by either of those," Fisher said. "What we liked about him was his composure and his capacity to organise and provide for other players around him ... he's got good composure, a strong kicking-game and an excellent passing-game."

Julian Huxley and Gene Fairbanks are the more senior options as a replacement for Larkham, but Brumbies chief Andrew Fagan said Super 14 was within Toomua's reach.

"He's got a tremendous future," Fagan said. "He's very much in the mould of Beale and Cooper, the guys who have been making headlines this year. We are preparing for life after George Gregan and Stephen Larkham."

[Burgs]

Sounds interesting, I remember the Qld II's doing well last year.
Let us know anything further you hear Evie

[Vanilla Ice]

This is old news.

[tic]

Oh great - yet another Queensland talent produced for interstate consumption. The QRU and ARU need to do something about this urgently. If not, Qld and therefore Australian rugby will continue to be a basket case. I don't mind talented Queenslanders having a run for interstate teams if they can't get a run in Queensland, but these boys are rejecting the Reds due to an inequality in bargaining power and therefore an inequality in rugby form. One thing feeds on the other. The ARU must start to regulate player contracts more effectively rather than putting their head in the sand. The current ARU are killing the game in this country - and to think how strong it was after RWC 2003 (from a spectator and money point of view).

[joblot]

I would tend to agree with you. Although we do not have the same home grown player base here in the West ("Yet"), I would hate to see it happening to our players.

[Burgs]

Youthful Inside Back prospects isn't what you are lacking tic, there has been a drop of senior players for several factors, most discussed previously.
Let's not forget that in the normal order of things Flats would still be at the Reds guiding them through this period.
There is going to be a period of adjustment around the Australian Rugby scene, probably for another season, while juniors come through to flesh out the extra squad spots and then it will be full steam ahead again.
We all love supporting a winning team but sometimes we need a rebuilding phase prior to a period of success.
That occurs across the codes around the globe.

[The InnFORCEr]

We all love supporting a winning team but sometimes we need a rebuilding phase prior to a period of success.
That occurs across the codes around the globe.

Collingwood have been in that phase since 1990

[frontrow]

Probably got a good 10 left in them too....

[tic]

Youthful Inside Back prospects isn't what you are lacking tic, there has been a drop of senior players for several factors, most discussed previously.
Let's not forget that in the normal order of things Flats would still be at the Reds guiding them through this period.
There is going to be a period of adjustment around the Australian Rugby scene, probably for another season, while juniors come through to flesh out the extra squad spots and then it will be full steam ahead again.
We all love supporting a winning team but sometimes we need a rebuilding phase prior to a period of success.
That occurs across the codes around the globe.

I really admire your optimism, but don't agree with everything you've said. Certainly the lack of experience is telling, but there is a structural problem in Aust rugby, underpinned by the free for all over player wages - Giteau, Tiquiri being just two examples. I'm a fan of Gits and have been for years - but he isn't worth anywhere near what he is paid - as for Lote - well perhaps I had better not comment. But a culture of greed has emerged in the elite players in this country and its a problem. New talent is and will emerge (but lets be realistic, it will come from Queensland and NSW where the junior base exists), but that talent will not be helped if senior players abandon their province for more money elsewhere or if those senior players stay at the province for inflated pay packets but get lazy and take things for granted (evidence is emerging of this now). So, getting back to the ARU, they must lead on this issue AND QUICKLY, by setting a better regulated pay structure and creating parity in income terms across all teams and all players. Otherwise, Rugby League and AFL will be laughing all the way.

[jazza93]

I'm a fan of Gits and have been for years - but he isn't worth anywhere near what he is paid - as for Lote - well perhaps I had better not comment.

i dissagree with you there isnt an australian rugby player thats paid more than his worth if anything the players not getting paid that much are not getting paid there worth.

those guys push them self to limits. they train very hard and they have been there whole life thats why they are where they are today.

[tic]

i dissagree with you there isnt an australian rugby player thats paid more than his worth if anything the players not getting paid that much are not getting paid there worth.

those guys push them self to limits. they train very hard and they have been there whole life thats why they are where they are today.

No. Rugby players are largely put in cotton wool if they get a sniffle. Compared to the pace and intensity of the NRL, the rugby guys get off very light. Ask Matty Rogers - he is a good yardstick. He claims the intensity of playing for the Gold Coast is far greater than the Super 14.

[jazza93]

league is a different game though . the rugby union players dont get off very light what do you mean. rugby league is just a differnt intencity. anyway its union here!

[pruc]

so what they are put in cottton wool when they start getting sick. the super 14 is a warm up and seletions trials to represent your country where as the NRL is what they play for yes they have origin and test matches but these occur during there season. so of ocurse a super 14 player trying to impress wallaby selectors would be put in cotton wool if theres a chance of him getting injured because h wants the best oppotunity to be asked to go to camp wallaby!

but Back to topic. lets hope he is as good as they say he is,

[tic]

so what they are put in cottton wool when they start getting sick. the super 14 is a warm up and seletions trials to represent your country where as the NRL is what they play for yes they have origin and test matches but these occur during there season. so of ocurse a super 14 player trying to impress wallaby selectors would be put in cotton wool if theres a chance of him getting injured because h wants the best oppotunity to be asked to go to camp wallaby!

but Back to topic. lets hope he is as good as they say he is,

Well, in my view, if the culture of the game now requires them to be put in cotton wool (and it hasn't always been that way), then they don't deserve to be paid what some are being paid. That's my point. But its the same in NZ (without the pay issue), it was ridiculous placing their stars in quarantine for most of the Super 14 - its an insult to the spectators who are shelling out and expect to see the best team on the pitch each week. That's what the players are paid to do, and should be made to do.

[Burgs]

Not sure who in Australia you are comparing to the current Conditioning Squad in NZ?
The money issue has been far greater impacted by the big money in Europe than a couple of deals here. It isn't those individuals fault either, the State and National bodies didn't have to make the offer, they obviously regarded it as money well spent even if laymen like us may disagree.
It was inevitable anyway, with market pressures from Europe, that someone was going to be the first to get a big jump in pay. If not 2006 then a Pocock, Beale or Barnes in 2010 etc.
I think the Reds need to look in their own backyard and sort out their Union before bitching about every other facet of the code.
There is a huge asset base in Queensland to make them just as financially competitive any other team, they just need better management, a better team culture to be worth marketing and some creative marketing strategy.
The Reds were always my team and I don't intend bashing them but Eddie seems to have rubbed off his whinging ways on those he has come in contact with, it seems contagious.