{"id":348343,"date":"2023-11-22T01:08:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T02:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=348343"},"modified":"2023-11-22T03:04:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T03:04:02","slug":"tough-as-nails-aussie-youngster-likened-to-nrl-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=348343","title":{"rendered":"'Tough as nails' Aussie youngster likened to NRL gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of Australian rugby sevens<\/a> stars\ufeff have likened a fresh face in the men's squad to Rabbitohs<\/a> and NSW State of Origin<\/a> gun Damien Cook<\/a> ahead of the beginning of the new world series.<\/p>\n

In a chat with Wide World of Sports at Rugby Australia headquarters this week, fullback Tim Clements and scrum half Matt Gonzalez\ufeff rattled off four young guns to keep an eye on this season, which will get under way in Dubai across December 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

Winger Henry Palmer, forwards\ufeff Aden Ekanayake and Ben Dalton and fly-half James McGregor are all worth watching out for during the revamped tournament, Clements and Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

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Clements said McGregor, a 19-year-old who did his schooling at Newington College, reminded him of Cook, who's among the top hookers in the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe's really, really quick and he's as tough as nails," Clements said of McGregor in the interview with Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"There's a few similarities there."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Gonzalez agreed with his sevens teammate.<\/p>\n

"We were in South Africa. He played his first tournament there and he got hit a few times, but he always got back up and kept going for the boys," Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

Watch the World Rugby Sevens on the home of rugby, Stan Sport, kicking off in Dubai on December 2.<\/strong><\/em> Every match exclusive, ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"He's a good little fella and I'm excited to watch him play.<\/p>\n

"He's slight in stature, but he's rapid and he just gives everything 110 per cent\ufeff, puts his body on the line, he's got really nice skills and he can make a break and make a play out of nothing, so he's really exciting to watch."<\/p>\n

Sevens men's coach John Manenti confirmed his squad for the season on Tuesday, which is captained by fly-half Nick Malouf.<\/p>\n

Manenti also revealed a development squad of five, which includes McGregor, Palmer, \ufeffEkanayake, Dalton and fly-half Conor Hickey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Watch\ufeff him when he comes on \u2014 he's pretty quick," Clements said of McGregor.<\/p>\n

The new-look world series will\ufeff make stops in Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore and Madrid, wrapping up on the weekend of May 31-June 2.<\/p>\n

"It's been a long, 15-week pre-season for us. The boys are looking forward to the end of it and to start the season in Dubai will be awesome," Clements said.<\/p>\n

"We're really, really excited for it.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

The men's team finished fifth at Tokyo 2020 and has its sights set on grabbing a medal at Paris 2024.<\/p>\n

The men's and women's Olympic Games sevens tournaments will take place at Stade de France between July 24 and 30.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of Australian rugby sevens stars\ufeff have likened a fresh face in the men's squad to Rabbitohs and NSW State of Origin gun Damien […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348343"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348351,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348343\/revisions\/348351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}