Harry McLaughlin-Phillips is not just the exciting new 19-year-old flyhalf making his debut for the Queensland Reds at Ballymore on Saturday. He should be the first test case of an upgraded future for Australian rugby.
It’s no extra burden on the shoulders of the upbeat playmaker they call “HMP” because the calls are with the talent-shapers you hope sit above him at state and national level.
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How good can he be and how good is the system to get him there? It’s the same question fans are asking about Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson now they are home from the Wallabies’ failed World Cup venture.
On one level, Gordon and Donaldson are successful. They are Wallabies at No.10 who rose from wearing the same number for the Australian Under-20s.
Why is that such a big deal? It is because so few players selected as Junior Wallabies No.10s have made it through to Test level over the past decade.
Go through this rough roll call. Jake McIntyre, James Dalgleish, Andrew Deegan, Mack Mason, Hamish Stewart, Isaac Lucas, Will Harrison, Lawson Creighton, Tane Edmed and others have worn the No.10 or been back-up for Australia at Under-20s level in that time.
It's not a great strike-rate even allowing for redhead Edmed, Creighton and the injury-plagued Harrison still developing in Super Rugby programs. ACT Brumby Noah Lolesio, of course, played 17 Tests at No.10 after being inside centre in Australia’s excellent Under-20s crop of 2019.
The point is, has there been enough specialist polishing of skills, enough patience and even enough quality games for all of these No.10s to be the best versions they can be? Sure, some had little flaws in kicking, passing, tackling, physicality or composure that worked against them but the question is still valid.
Lucas (Japan), McIntyre (France) and Mason (USA) have all played their best rugby abroad since bursting through in Australia at 21 or even younger.
McLaughlin-Phillips and NSW Waratahs rookie Jack Bowen, 20, another talent from this year’s Junior Wallabies, need more nurturing than their predecessors.
You watch a World Cup where South Africa’s Handre Pollard kicks 13-from-13 with the boot in the highest-pressure games and think...more goalkicking tutelage.
You watch line-kickers from multiple nations kick precisely to 5m out from the tryline to set up the best position for attacking lineouts and think...better general kicking processes.
You watch Frenchman Antoine Dupont’s two short attacking kicks in the opening minutes of a quarter-final and you think...kick execution and tactics.
Ok. A national kicking coach to go around all five Super Rugby Pacific teams or a higher priority put on the full raft of kicking skills being taught by a kicking expert in each state is a must.
You could hone in on other positions and skills with the same microscope.
You look at McLaughlin-Phillips' dance card for 2023. He’s played nine first grade games for Souths, seven games for the Junior Wallabies and four development games-trials with the Reds. Saturday will be his 21st game of the year.
With no tier of rugby between club and Super Rugby, he’s probably played five or six games fewer than a peer in New Zealand rugby. And that's coming off a 2021 COVID year where he played only four school games.
McLaughlin-Phillips will just go out and play against Japan’s Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights on Saturday afternoon. He’s an exciting prospect who loves the attacking side of the game.
“I like to run the ball and take the game on,” McLaughlin-Phillips said.
Who does he look at on the world stage at No.10?
“I do admire how Richie Mo’unga plays the game. That’s an easy option. The way he kicks, runs and passes is very skilful. He’s someone you look up to,” he said.
“Carter (Gordon) has heaps of talent. Being able to train and get assistance from 10s like Lawson, Tom Lynagh and ‘Rabs’ (James O’Connor) is really beneficial.
“I try to absorb as much as I can from Rabs around the little things that go with No.10 like when to pick the right moment and positioning off a pod.”
McLaughlin-Phillips admits his kicking game is “a bit neglected” and he wouldn’t be the only young Aussie to say that.
Kris Burton, the Queensland-born flyhalf-fullback who played 21 Tests for Italy, is currently directing work to sharpen HMP’s kicking under the Reds' new head coach Les Kiss.
McLaughlin-Phillips grew up in Gunnedah before a family move to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. Brisbane Boys’ College was his early finishing school, the same school which polished Len Ikitau, Carter and Mason Gordon, Trevor Hosea and Panasonic’s Ben Gunter in recent years.
McLaughlin-Phillips will have the best chance possible at a positive Reds debut because he’s surrounded by the experience of 2022 Wallabies Harry Wilson and Jock Campbell, Josh Flook, Kalani Thomas, Australia A’s Seru Uru and former All Blacks prop Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen.
How high McLaughlin-Phillips and Bowen climb over the next four years not only depends on them. It depends on the skills that can be loaded and repeated through their Super Rugby teams, Australian rugby, the upgraded system than RA chief Phil Waugh talks of and something as simple as playing more games.
