Jordan Petaia literally has a skip in his step as he continues his 11th hour bid for a World Cup spot.
After making his return from a foot injury for Wests in Queensland Premier Rugby almost a fortnight ago, the teen speedster was loaned to QPR rivals Sunnybank for the final round of fixtures to allow him valuable game time as he continues to recover from a foot injury that cruelled his Super Rugby season.
After a 20-minute cameo in his return, Petaia played half a game for the Dragons in their 41-29 win over Bond University on Saturday.
And while he had few chances in open space, Sunnybank coach Evan Willis said there were signs Petaia was returning to his best.
"I think he made massive gains from the Wests-Souths game to this game," Willis said.
"What a lot of people don't realise about Jordy is he's a very big man.
"He's a big unit and he's getting that little skip in his step before he goes into contact and he's got that ability to keep players at arm's length, so there's only positive signs.
"I don't know that he got to top end speed but because he's got such long limbs - he's a bit Chris Latham like - he might not look like he's moving quick but god, he gets going very quickly. He showed some great speed off the mark."
One of the rising stars of Australian rugby, Petaia tore the lisfrancs ligament in his foot just minutes into the Reds' second game of the season, with fears his bid for a World Cup spot could be over.
But two surgeries - to insert and then remove pins to stabilise his midfoot - and months of rehabilitation have him back on the field and the speedster remains in the Wallabies training squad, working team ahead of their tour of South Africa, and again before the Brisbane Test.
The 19-year-old was on loan to Sunnybank with conditions imposed by Wallabies staff who have been monitoring his comeback.
"He had to play 40 minutes and he had to play in the second half," Willis said.
"We'd lost a guy on yellow card sanctions the week before and he was our starting outside centre, so it was quite a good fit actually.
"(Petaia) probably didn't get as much open room to move a he might have liked but he was very complete in defence and he carried hard into contact, there's no doubt about that."
Having coached Petaia several years ago at Brisbane State High School before watching his star rise at Wests, Willis was happy to accommodate the Bulldogs' request to give him a game.
"I was very fortunate to coach Jordy in U15s at Brisbane State High School and I was coaching at Wests five years before I went to Sunnybank, so I'd worked with Jordy on a couple of occasions," Willis said.
"And the other contributing factor is his brother Ben actually plays rugby with Sunnybank.
"He unfortunately had a serious knee injury earlier in the year, so he didn't get to play with him on Saturday but he was there on the sideline watching.
"So we looked at it as almost a coming home for him actually."
Wests president Graham Brown said the Bulldogs had no qualms about lending Petaia to the Dragons.
"Jordy's a good guy. We all want to see young guys like him progress and particularly to the Wallabies and potentially a World Cup," Brown said.
"We had a bye, so we were more than happy to endorse him playing for another club to give him game time."
While Brown had raised the possibility of Petaia playing in the Bulldogs' reserve grade side in this week's semi-finals to get another game under his belt, that will not happen, with the teen likely to train with the Queensland-based Wallabies squad members at the weekend.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said players outside the Rugby Championship match-day 23 were "mixing and matching" to ensure they had game time under their belts.
"Some teams will make finals, some teams won't in club rugby, so we've got to be creative in how we keep everyone alive around getting their footy, that contact and the match environment up," Cheika said.
"But we've done it before and we'll be able to create the environments and the opportunities for players to get a game, whether it's here with us or somewhere in club rugby or when NRC starts as well."
