Twenty-year-old Brumbies hooker Billy Pollard is on his way to Argentina after starting Wallabies hooker Dave Porecki suffered a head knock at training.
Highly rated young hooker Billy Pollard is making a mad dash to join the Wallabies squad in Argentina after Dave Porecki was ruled out of Sunday’s Test with a head knock.
Folau Fainga’a will start at no.2 for the Wallabies, with four-Test hooker Lachlan Lonergan set to get his first taste of Test action this year with a call-up to the bench. The team will be announced on Friday at 5am . The 20-year-old has played eight games for the Brumbies since debuting last year, in an all-Test hooker rotation with Fainga’a, Lonergan and Conal McInerney.The task of getting Pollard from Canberra to Mendoza is not straightforward, however, and it is likely he will arrive less than 24 hours before the game. The Australian embassy in Buenos Aires has been assisting the Wallabies with logistics.
“He is a very good footballer, he’d be a very good league back-rower, there’s no doubting that,” McKellar said. “He has speed and athleticism and skill-set, and he’s tough. But learning the dark arts of scrum, lineout and maul take time.“We made it really clear from the start that an 18-year-old ... that he was going to need a couple of years development, and get his set-piece to the level it needs to be at.