{"id":754520,"date":"2026-06-23T06:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754520\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T06:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:55:13","slug":"mackay-prepared-to-handle-golden-pressure-in-quest-for-australia-u20s-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754520\/","title":{"rendered":"Mackay prepared to handle golden pressure in quest for Australia U20s success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia U20s flyhalf Finn Mackay is riding the high of his debut Super Rugby season as the Queenslander looks to deliver success in the gold jersey.<\/p>\n

Mackay and the Aussies have settled into Georgia ahead of Sunday’s (AEST) Junior World Championship opener against Spain after a 25-hour trip to reach their base in Kutaisi.<\/p>\n

Watch every second of the Junior World Championship live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n

The playmaker is coming off a remarkable 12-month period that started with a clean sweep of New Zealand Secondary Schools in October, and now finds himself with a Reds debut and his first professional contract.<\/p>\n

Mackay became a part of a special group of players to have three straight wins over their Kiwi counterparts at the U18s level, a feat which had not been achieved by an Australian team in over 30 years.<\/p>\n

This caught the eye of Reds coach Les Kiss, who extended a pre-season invite that culminated in a sudden Reds debut against the Saitama Wild Knights a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty surreal. We\u2019d just come off the 18s against New Zealand and I was expecting to go in for a few weeks over off-season and then the Reds wanted me to stay and maybe get an opportunity to play Wild Knights,” he told Rugby.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it would happen that quickly to get that Queensland debut, I didn\u2019t even think about it, but to get the opportunity to play with guys like Jeff Toomaga-Allen and other experienced Reds capped guys, it was another step up but a great learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Souths product found himself thrust onto the big stage in 2026, with injuries to Tom Lynagh, Carter Gordon and Ben Volavola leading to a Super Rugby Pacific debut against the NSW Waratahs to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just in one meeting and Carter was like \u2018\u2018I think you\u2019re on here\u2019 and I had no idea what he meant, I didn\u2019t even think about and then I was on the bench and my heart dropped,” Mackay said and smiled. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was funny I was named in a Next Gen team with the 20s and [Les] Kissy came in during the captain\u2019s run and said Finn\u2019s not playing tomorrow, he\u2019ll be with us next weekend so I had all the team around me. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first time playing in front of a big crowd in a stadium and I was a bit nervous for that first kickoff but it\u2019s so quick so you\u2019ve got to be switched on every minute of the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it was for 15 minutes, I was getting a bit tired but it\u2019s definitely something I want to experience more next year and push myself a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meteoric rise of Mackay has led to pressure and expectation to start following the young ten, hailed as a ‘rare talent’ by former Wallabies playmaker Berrick Barnes after his Reds debut.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a reality the flyhalf knows comes with the number of the back.<\/p>\n

“I think the main thing is just to be myself and have fun. My dad always says if you’re not having fun, why are you doing it? ” he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me when I go into a game, if I’m at my best, I’m having fun, I’m enjoying myself and just clear-minded. I think the pressure’s always going to be there but it’s how you deal with it and if you’re having fun, maybe the pressure’s not as bad. <\/p>\n

\u201cI try to push myself to that gold jersey, whether it’s 20s or Australia or one of these. It’s just a privilege, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s why having four other flyhalves with international experience at the Reds is perfect prep for Mackay in his view, heading into this tournament, picking their brains.<\/p>\n

“I try to learn a thing or two off them about what their strengths are and try to bring that to my game but I think a big thing is in the meetings. They’re really smart in how they speak, their detail of previewing other teams and looking at other teams so that was a big thing for me, just soaking in that information,” he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all been really good for me and it\u2019s been a good couple of months of pre-season heading into this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia U20s flyhalf Finn Mackay is riding the high of his debut Super Rugby season as the Queenslander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,8626,760,85],"class_list":["post-754520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-u20","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754520","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=754520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}