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Highlanders targeted new Brumbies pivot in Super Rugby wake-up call

Noah Lolesio. (Photo by Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar has backed rookie No. 10 Noah Lolesio to learn from a brutal induction to New Zealand opposition in Super Rugby.

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Lolesio enjoyed a stellar start to his professional career with wins against Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels, but he struggled against the Highlanders in round three on Saturday.

The Kiwis put the 20-year-old under pressure, forcing Lolesio into several mistakes during the Brumbies’ heartbreaking 23-22 loss.

But McKellar said the Junior Wallabies star would only get better after he made several knock-ons, miss-kicks and a forward pass.

“He handled it well. He didn’t drop his bundle or anything like that, he’s at the start of his career and as I’ve said for the last few weeks, he’ll learn every game,” McKellar said.

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“Tonight was another learning curve.”

Lolesio was also praised by Highlanders coach and former All Blacks No.10 Aaron Mauger.

But the rival coach admitted they had targeted the young gun, who McKellar left on the park for the entire match.

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“He’s an outstanding young footy player, it’s just harder being a young 10 in this competition,” Mauger said.

“You step up and learn how to be consistent week after week and you come up against stuff in Super Rugby you haven’t quite dealt with yet.

“We had plans around pressuring their kicking game and he’s obviously part of that, we knew the physical contest was going to be big and I thought we fronted really well there too.

“We put him under some pressure but I’m sure he’ll bounce back. He’s a good young footy player.”

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The Brumbies face the unbeaten Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday.

– AAP

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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