As Joe Schmidt searches for the answer to who is best positioned to drive the Wallabies forward in the No.10 jersey, a 29-year-old in the prime of his career will be taking the field at Coogee Oval in the hours before the national side takes on the Springboks in Perth later on Saturday evening. That person is Andrew Deegan and, according to Morgan Turinui, the blonde-haired fly-half’s quality sums up the lost generation of playmakers holding back Australian rugby as he prepares to lead Randwick against Gordon in the Shute Shield quarter-finals.
In a social media post on Wednesday night, Turinui said there’s a “lesson” for Australian rugby to learn about Deegan’s journey after winning the Shute Shield’s top individual gong earlier that night. The former Wallaby turned coach and pundit was, of course, referring to Deegan’s prized evening in front of a packed room at Doltone House where the Randwick playmaker gave the rest of the field in the Shute Shield a head start yet still managed to come out on top to win the prestigious Ken Catchpole Medal. “It’s a nice little example of where we’re at, isn’t it?” Turinui told The Roar .
“You look at Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley, how old are they now? Either side of 35. Then you look at Noah [Lolesio] and [Will] Harrison and [Ben] Donaldson and [Tom] Lynagh, [Tane] Edmed and even Carter Gordon – they’re all 25 or under. “There’s a decade of two 10s playing 20s World Cups every year and rightly or wrongly, we saw a performance at a 20s World Cup, whatever year that was, and went, ‘Oh, this is the golden generation, these kids.
“But before that, there were 10 years of tens and inside backs playing. Andrew Deegan pictured with June Catchpole after the Randwick playmaker won the Ken Catchpole Medal for being the Shute Shield’s best player in 2024. Photo: Karen Watson “Forget the names, but the 10 for the Wallabies this weekend should be someone like Mack Mason or Sam Greene, [Jake] McIntyre, Deegan, or someone like that should be the 10 on the bench.
“And Ben Donaldson should be playing for Randwick on Saturday, Lynagh should be playing in the Hospital Cup. “Noah probably should be on the periphery of the Wallabies on performance, maybe in terms of the pathway that you would love those guys to have to tread to get to the Wallabies. “But Andrew Deegan’s a great example of a kid, who I coached him for a little while in 2016 when he was 21-years-old just coming into grade alongside Dave Horwitz, great young kids, [Andrew] Kellaway was coming into grade, great young kids with absolutely no idea.
Hugely talented kids, no idea. “Not long after that, Deegan gets a bit of a sniff and goes in and predictably gets chewed up, spat out, not ready. “But at 29, the last two years of what I’ve seen, take any bias out of it, but it’s the age profile.
He’s the most accomplished number ten probably alongside Jack Debreczeni in the country in terms of maturity and life experience and self-awareness and all that sort of stuff.” Although the person who wore the No.10 jersey for the Springboks last week in their demolition over the Wallabies is 22, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is by no means the norm.
Indeed, even before he played brilliantly against the Wallabies in front of 52,000 fans in Brisbane, the Stormers back had come off the bench a handful of times. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu had a memorable starting debut for the Springboks against the Wallabies in Brisbane. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images) Then when Rassie Erasmus did give him the No.
10 jersey, he was surrounded by experience and World Cup winners across the park. He also had the benefit and insurance back-up of having someone like Handre Pollard on the bench. It’s an equation and luxury the Wallabies and Australian rugby haven’t had for years.
As Turinui says, “You’ve got absolute out-of-the-box genius guys like Quade Cooper, who was 21 and ready to run the show, but they’re the exception, not the rule. “But we keep looking for these kids to be the rule. “If it’s not Noah, then it’s Donaldson.
If it’s not Donaldson, then it’s Harrison. If it’s not Harrison, it’s Edmed. If it’s not that, it’s Lynagh.
“Who’s the next kid to come out of some private school in Sydney, right? We’ll just keep going down, younger and younger, and then we’re surprised when we chew them up and spit them out. “It’s just the reality of where we are, but it’s also paying the price for the talent fight we’re in at 18 years of age where kids are expecting a contract. If you’re good, you expect a contract.
“We’re fighting league. We’re probably fighting overseas. We’re fighting for any kid that’s got any other ancestral ties to other countries when they’re young.
“But no one’s patient, no one’s ready – they’re not ready.” Andrew Deegan (L) and former Wallaby Bernard Foley (C) during a media opportunity in 2016. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images for BMW) Deegan, who led Randwick to a drought-breaking Shute Shield title last year and this year moved into full-time work, believes he’s much better positioned to take the game on now after almost a decade in the game.
“The nature of being a 10, I don’t think you ever stop learning the game,” said Deegan, who has worn the Force and Rebels jumper between stints at Connacht and in Japan. “I think when I first put some boots on for some rep footy out of school, and some opportunities in the wider Super squads [appeared], I probably didn’t know the game well enough, and I think that’s maybe a bit of a theme at the moment. “I think there’s some very good young tens in Australia at the moment, and they’ve just got to play footy.
They’re going to make mistakes – like no one’s going to walk onto the field and be the next Dan Carter. There’s very few and far between that can come out as a young 20-year-old and dominate the game. “But there’s no substitute for playing games for certain positions in rugby.
Deegan doesn’t hold any grudges for not quite making it in Super Rugby. “Being dead set frank, I probably wasn’t good enough at the time,” he said. “I’ve never held anything against any of the Super Rugby teams that I’ve departed with.
“I probably wasn’t good enough at the time. It’s a performance industry and if you’re not performing, there are decisions that have to be made.” Yet, the experienced playmaker simply believes the next generation aren’t getting enough runs under their belt before being thrown in the deep end.
“Maybe then that goes down to whether there were enough quality games being played just below that Super Rugby level?” he said. “I know that they’ve cut a Super Rugby team to funnel the talent to the Wallabies, which makes sense. But you hope that that, especially in the Shute Shield of the moment, you hope that RA isn’t letting the talent then flood overseas, because I can tell you the next 10-15 blokes coming out of the Shute Shield will be going to America or somewhere like that.
” Andrew Deegan in action for Connacht against Cardiff Blues at Sportsground in Galway. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images) Former Waratahs coach Darren Coleman, who coached Deegan in the National Rugby Championship, believes the playmaker is the “perfect example” of why playmakers need time and opportunities in the saddle. “He’s a perfect illustration of how players grow, and particularly in those skill positions or decision-making positions, they may not be as fast as they were when they were younger, but they’re much faster between the ears,” Coleman said.
So where’s he grown over the past decade? “Consistency,” Coleman said. “When I watch him play, I can still see that same pass and kick skill set, but he just has a lot less error, he looks calmer, he looks composed. “He’s got the whole bag.
He’s got a good short-kicking game and has a kick-pass.” Deegan is desperate to lead Stephen Hoiles’ side to back-to-back Shute Shield titles. Is he interested in getting another crack at Super Rugby? “I haven’t thought about it at all, if I’m being generally frank with you,” he said.
“What did I do last year? I came back looking for a job, didn’t quite get over the line, and then the opportunity came up to go back to Japan for a couple of months. I loved it over there, I loved my experience over there, the people and the culture, everything. “Then I was like, ‘OK, maybe now I need to start thinking about it properly.
’ To be honest, I’m really quite happy with the balance of what I’m doing with work, a bit of club footy and a bit of extra study on the side.” As content as Deegan might be, his journey represents the lost generation of playmakers over the past decade and why Schmidt has few alternatives other than to back the current youth..
