The weight on a nation will be on the shoulders of Tom Lynagh, as the 22-year-old from a legendary Australian rugby family takes the field to welcome the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane.
With the injury to Noah Lolesio ruling him out of the series, Lynagh will be up against a dangerous Lions backline spearheaded by the likes of Finn Russell.
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However, head coach Joe Schmidt expects the young flyhalf to not only step up for the occasion, but also bring his 'quiet confidence' to the wider team and adapt quickly.
"I'm really excited for Tom," Schmidt said at the team announcement press conference on Thursday.
"He's a great kid, he's got a quiet confidence about him.
"You wouldn't think that he's necessarily designed to run a game and dictate what's happening, but he does have a quiet confidence that gives us a quiet confidence as well. He's fitted in really well this week, he has given us the confidence and the players the confidence that he's going to run the game really well for us.
"The kicking game is strong, he's got good acceleration and he's incredibly brave, to a fault.
"It's his home track, it's a fantastic opportunity for him. We twice had him lined up for his first start for the Wallabies last year and he picked up little niggles so it's great this time. Probably not ideal to be starting your first test match for the Wallabies against the British and Irish lines.
"But you've got to start somewhere, and if not now, when?"
What also tipped Lynagh over the scales for Schmidt over the likes of Ben Donaldson and James O'Connor was the accountability shown for a player so young - which he expects will be part of the game come Saturday.
"We try not to base our whole game around any individual, we share the load," Schmidt added.
"I'm confident in him and I guess that's part of it. It's a stadium he knows really well, it's a piece of grass that he's been on and been across many, many times. I think that will just help him settle into his game and if he can settle early, hopefully he can get a rhythm that allows him to dictate the game to a degree.
"We know there's going to be times where we're not going to be in enough control to dictate the game. Whatever does get thrown at Tom, I am confident that he'll cope and I'm very confident that he'll learn from the occasion.
"It may be that he has to learn quickly because of the magnitude of the game and the quality of the opposition."
Gordon, despite not having played much alongside Lynagh in a gold jersey, admitted that his 'calm' demeanour has worked wonders for the wider squad.
"We've spent a lot of time together training," the Waratahs captain said.
"I think the luxury with Tom is he has such a good skill set, he's really calm under pressure, he's the sort of guy that directs people around the field really well.
"I wouldn't say a heap of time together, but the time we have spent has been really good. We've gelled really nicely."
"He's very calm and I've seen and played outside him all year at the Reds - he's someone who has this quiet confidence about himself," Reds teammate Fraser McReight added.
"Once he goes on the pitch you sort of know he's going to do the hard yakka, whether it's a big ball carry coming at him and having to put his head in some dark places. He's been superb.
"To see him get his first start obviously for the Wallabies at home, a few decades after his old man, I think it's great for him and it shows how far he's come in the past 12 months, really excited for him.
"For him it's about knowing that he's got people inside and outside him who will 'com' him up and be able to make him even better - and then really hopefully he doesn't make too many tackles and he just directs us around the field."
