The Plus500 Brumbies are delighted to announce that five Brumbies Academy players have been promoted to club’s Super Rugby squad for the 2021 season.
With 27 of the Super Rugby AU championship winning squad retained for 2021, these players will join 14 fellow Brumbies development graduates in Dan McKellar’s squad for next season.
Marist College product Rory Scott joins his boyhood local team after winning the 2020 John I Dent Cup with his Royals club.
The backrow is joined by openside flanker Luke Reimer, who has impressed in club rugby with Wests having joined the Brumbies Academy from Sydney in 2019.
Both Scott and Reimer were part of the 2018 Australian Schoolboys side, together with halfback Lachlan Albert and hooker Billy Pollard, who both played two seasons in the underage national team in 2018 and 2019.
Albert was a standout performer in the 2020 John I Dent Cup with Wests and has already shown his class in ACT colours with a handful of eye-catching performances with the Brumbies Runners.
Pollard, a dynamic hooker with genuine pace, joins the professional rugby ranks having previously turned down offers from rugby league clubs to commit to rugby with the Brumbies.
Bathurst-born Lock Tom Hooper rounds out the list of Academy graduates.
Hooper was part of the Australian U18 side with Albert and Pollard that went unbeaten in New Zealand in 2019 and has turned heads in club rugby this year with the Tuggeranong Vikings.
Plus500 Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said: “We’re excited to welcome our Academy graduates into the programme full-time for 2021.”
“All five have spent time with the group at different stages last season, and they’ve proven that they are ready to make the step up.
“A lot of credit goes to our Academy Head Coach Daniel Hooper and Head of Performance Barry Horgan because when they’ve joined the top squad for periods in the past, they’ve worked hard, they’ve been prepared, and they’ve clearly been hard at work in that Academy programme.
“Part of my vision for the club when I took over as Head Coach was the Brumbies having a thriving Academy programme and we’re already seeing the benefits of that.
“For these young men, the hard work starts now and for us as coaches, our job is to make sure they continue to improve so that when we expose them to the top level, they’re ready.”
