Wallaby Tom Lynagh impresses with ‘special’ debut cameo off the bench

Two days out from Australia’s clash with Wales, coach Joe Schmidt described uncapped playmaker Tom Lynagh as “a cool customer.” Lynagh went on to debut in Wallaby gold and proved Schmidt right in the process with a clutch conversion late in the piece.

There was a lot of interest in Lynagh’s upcoming debut with the Reds playmaker looking to follow in the footsteps of his famous father. Michael Lynagh is, after all, widely considered one of the greatest No. 10s in Australian rugby history.

But this was an opportunity for young Tom to forge his own legacy in Wallaby gold. When the flyhalf was called on to come off the bench against the Welsh in the 63^rd minute, the Sydney crowd let out one of their biggest cheers of the night for a Queenslander.

Lynagh ran out onto the field along with Reds teammate and halves partner Tate McDermott. The pair would end up playing a key role in the Wallabies’ 25-16 win, with Wales cutting the deficit down to just two points with 15 minutes to play.

Both Lynagh and McDermott needed to help close the game out and that’s what they did. The 21-year-old registered a try assist after passing the ball onto fullback Tom Wright, who sliced through the Welsh defensive line to score a stunning solo try.

Lynagh then stepped up about 10 metres in from touch and nailed a tough conversion. That extended the scores to beyond a converted try which all but ended Wales’ hopes of realistically clawing their way back into the lead.

“Yeah, pretty calm,” Lynagh reflected on Stan Sport when asked about the shot at goal.

“I had a good couple of kicking sessions this last week so that gave me a lot of confidence going into it.”

Lynagh wasn’t the only debutant on Saturday evening at Allianz Stadium. Western Force captain Jeremy Williams and Reds centre Josh Flook were named in the starting side, and there were another five uncapped players in line to debut off the pine.

Prop Isaac Kailea, lock Angus Blyth, backrower Charlie Cale and winger Dylan Pietsch all became Wallabies on the same night as Lynagh. It gave the players even more to celebrate after helping Australia go 1-0 on the year.

“Yeah it’s a pretty special moment, really,” Lynagh said. “Not just for myself but all the boys involved, whether it’s their first game of 100^th.

“Lots to take from that and we’ll go into next week.

“I just tried to stay calm and finish the game. Noah (Lolesio) and the rest of the boys put us in a good position to win that so it was my job to finish it off.”

But that’s only one match. The Wallabies will want to back that up when they take on Wales for the second and final time in the July series in Melbourne, followed up by an intriguing matchup with Georgia in Sydney.

The Australian players focused on recovery in Coogee on Sunday morning but will no doubt turn their focus to the upcoming clash with Cymru if they haven’t already. That second fixture will be played this coming Saturday at AAMI Park.

“A win is really important and it always is because that’s what you get judged on externally, but internally, I think just some of the moments that we did really well to earn the win, that’s what will be the focus for us building into Melbourne,” coach Joe Schmidt told reporters.

“We have a few things that we’ve been working on that are maybe a little bit different to how teams have played in Super Rugby, so the adjustment time for that to become second nature is inevitably going to take time.

“Hopefully, it can take till Tuesday and we can be really good at it… it will develop over these next two weeks, hopefully, and we know how tough The Rugby Championship is.”