Noah Lolesio has come a long way since he walked into Wallabies camp as a fresh-faced 20-year-old two years ago.
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Wide eyed and baby faced, the Brumbies flyhalf was thrust into the limelight when he was named to start in the third Bledisloe Cup contest in Sydney. Australia were outplayed and fell to the All Blacks 43-5.
It was a brutal welcome to the international arena, but one Lolesio feels helped him prepare for the rollercoaster that is a professional rugby union career.
The flyhalf experienced the disappointment of missing selection for last year's spring tour, only to be called up at the last minute after Quade Cooper decided to remain with his club in Japan.
This season was also not smooth sailing, Lolesio missing time throughout the Super Rugby Pacific season due to injury.
But despite the challenges, the 22-year-old has routinely stood up for both the Brumbies and Wallabies and achieved considerable success on the field.
It's a journey Lolesio is confident has him primed to fire throughout next month's Test series against England.
"It was a bit of a bumpy road at the end of last year," Lolesio said.
"I feel like now I've matured a lot as a player with the help of this man right next to me [Nic White].
"It was definitely an up and down season for myself. A lot of things have happened, but I'm very grateful I'm here right now and ready to put my best foot forward to be selected in the game day 23."
Lolesio is locked in a race with Cooper and James O'Connor for the No.10 jumper, Cooper the favourite to fill the crucial role.
O'Connor's versatility could work in his favour as an option to start at fullback or utility substitute.
Lolesio, however, has match-fitness on his side. While O'Connor sat out the second half of the Super Rugby Pacific season with a hamstring injury, Lolesio was leading the Brumbies to the semi-finals.
There, he learnt plenty about closing out a match at the death and he's determined to put those lessons into practice if the opportunity arises during the series.
"I want to have that mentality walking into a squad that I'm not just another number to hold a pad," Lolesio said.
"I'm here to compete. We're here to put our best foot forward competing, which creates an awesome standard of training and we put that on to the field too.
"Quade and [James O'Connor] are both awesome players. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and I'm just putting my head down and doing the work and doing the best I can."
While the trio are engaged in a battle for a gold jumper, O'Connor and Cooper have acted as a mentor for their younger contemporary throughout their time in camp.
There are plenty of lessons to pass on, the pair experiencing a host of situations on and off-the-field. It's the intricacies of playing flyhalf, however, that Lolesio is particularly keen to explore.
"Quade's been awesome to me ever since he came into the squad last year. In my opinion, he's probably mastered the craft of being a flyhalf.
"We've been feeding off each other a lot since the camp started last week. We're just talking about variations of our attack. Being a flyhalf, it's the spotlight of decision making and [we're discussing] choosing the right decisions and various situations.
"He's been awesome to me. He's been telling me how to handle stuff on and off the field. I've been picking his brain."
Cooper and O'Connor aren't the only star playmakers Lolesio has leant on this season.
Incoming Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has also acted as a sounding board throughout the Super Rugby campaign.
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The World Cup-winning flyhalf will hit the ground running when he arrives in Canberra next month and Lolesio can't wait to link up with the Brumbies and Wallabies legend.
"One of the main reasons I re-signed with the Brumbies was to learn off probably the greatest flyhalf the Wallabies have had, Bernie," Lolesio said.
"He's been messaging me throughout the year, giving me his ideas on the Brumbies attack, the Brumbies attack next season. He's just been keeping in contact with me post-games on what he thinks I did well, the lessons I can take from those games."
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