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Australia U20s captain Toby Macpherson makes Japan switch on loan

Toby MacPherson of Australia in ac during The Rugby Championship U20 Round 1 match between Australia and Argentina at Sunshine Coast Stadium on May 02, 2024 in Sunshine Coast, Australia. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Australia U20s captain Toby Macpherson will rub shoulders with some of the world’s best after signing a unique loan deal with Japanese juggernauts Toyota Verblitz. The lock will return to the ACT Brumbies in June next year, having committed to the club for 2026 and 2027.

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Macpherson captained Australia at this year’s inaugural U20 Rugby Championship on the Sunshine Coast and later the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa. The youngster was recently named the Junior Men’s Player of the Year at the Rugby Australia Awards.

With so much potential and no doubt a bright future ahead of him, Macpherson has made the decision to head offshore for a season after signing with Toyota Verblitz. The second-rower will spend the 2024/25 campaign in Japan before returning to Australia.

Toyota Verblitz is a club that boasts genuine star power, with All Blacks great Aaron Smith, Springbok Pieter-Steph du Toit, and former NRL star Joey Manu among the playing ranks. Former All Blacks coaches Ian Foster and Sir Steve Hansen are also involved in the management staff.

With the Brumbies formally announcing the move on Friday – wishing the rising star “the best of luck” for the opportunity – the Australian rugby community will no doubt monitor this move closely as Macpherson looks to develop his game at the world-class club.

“I’m super excited to join Toyota Verblitz,” Macpherson said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to meeting all the Verblitz supporters, learning about Japan’s amazing culture, and growing even more through my experience with the Toyota Verblitz players and coaches.

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“I look forward to working with you all.”

In the first-ever U20 Rugby Championship, Macpherson started all three matches at No. 4 lock. The skipper played the entire 80 minutes in those fixtures, which included a tense 25-36 loss to New Zealand U20s in a title decider at Sunshine Coast Stadium.

Macpherson backed that up by starting every match at the U20 Championship in Cape Town, which included a try during a 69-minute shift in a win over Wales U20s. Australia beat Georgia, lost to both Italy and Argentina in their other matche that went ahead.

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Phillip 13 days ago

What a great opportunity to grow is game in a different environment! I'm sure it'll be an amazing experience.

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JW 30 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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