{"id":590565,"date":"2026-04-07T04:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590565\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:56:08","slug":"farm-life-grounds-lonergan-as-scrumhalf-prepares-for-super-rugby-century-wallabies-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590565\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm life grounds Lonergan as scrumhalf prepares for Super Rugby century, Wallabies push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Ryan Lonergan has spent much of his career waiting in the wings for a Wallabies opportunity, and now believes he has a chance to become a mainstay in the national set-up as he credits his second home for keeping perspective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The 28-year-old is expected to dazzle for the ACT Brumbies in his milestone 100th Super Rugby Pacific match on Friday, having orchestrated tries, scored his own and registered a huge number of passes this season. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/watch\/sport\/rugby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"css-tm001h\">Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Lonergan&#8217;s Super campaign has only strengthened his case for another Wallabies call-up after making his international debut last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">It also comes as he looks to cement the Wallabies No.9 jersey ahead of next year&#8217;s home Rugby World Cup, having been overlooked previously for Jake Gordon, Tate McDermott and Nic White, despite getting a first call-up in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">After a strong start to the season, the door has opened for Lonergan to finally take the starting spot, having previously come off the bench. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;I think I have a chance (of making the Wallabies). I was in there last year, and I feel like I&#8217;ve been playing pretty well. We&#8217;ll see what happens,&#8221; he told reporters on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;I just need to keep working on the (skills) required at Test rugby level. I also need to just stay composed in the big moments. That&#8217;s one of the big things for me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;If I win a title, it probably goes a long way to (helping) my case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Lonergan, who marked his 28th birthday on Monday, said his glittering start to the season was partly thanks to the time he spends on his childhood farm at Williamsdale, about a 30-minute drive south of Canberra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">He loves spending time with his family, and also goes out to the paddocks at least twice a week, helping with jobs such as fencing and rounding up sheep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;It&#8217;s just home for me, really. It&#8217;s a great way for me to be able to disconnect from not only rugby, but just everything else in the world,&#8221; Lonergan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;We might have a whole day of meetings and frustrations, and it seems to be the most important thing in the world. Then you come out here, and it puts things in a bit of perspective.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Lonergan is turning his attention to the Brumbies&#8217; clash against the Highlanders in Dunedin on Friday night, as the side look to bounce back after losing three of their past four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;We have to lift our training standards. That was the main theme from it (the bye last round),&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;It&#8217;s on us as leaders to just drive those standards throughout, because we did see it fade.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Lonergan has spent much of his career waiting in the wings for a Wallabies opportunity, and now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[58864,64,63,760,85,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-590565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-act-brumbies","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-super-rugby-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}