Manly’s colts flyhalf Joe Dillon earned a last minute call up to the Junior Wallabies squad after impressing for the Marlins in the Shute Shield colts competition. 

Dillon thought his hopes of representing Australia at the under 20s World Cup were over when he missed selection in Nathan Grey’s squad for a warm up tournament last month.

But after impressing at Manly Oval, Dillon was a shock inclusion in Grey’s 30-man squad and will spend the next month competing with and against the best young rugby players in the world. 

“I was always hopeful but I didn’t really expect it to be honest and when Greysy called, I was pretty shocked,” he told Rugby News before leaving for South Africa. 

“I was invited to a camp in Sydney earlier this year but then I didn’t get picked in the squad for the Rugby Championships. 

“Greysy called me and told me to go back to Manly and play well in colts and that they’d keep watching me. Then a few Sunday’s ago, he called and said I was going to be picked and I couldn’t believe it.”

After graduating from Riverview, the Chatswood junior played for the NSW U18s in academy matches late last year before joining Manly’s colts program. 

With Dillon pulling the strings, the Marlins are in the top six and fell just short in a 7-6 loss to competition leaders Easts in Dillon’s most recent match. 

“Game control is probably the most important thing for a flyhalf and that’s what I’ve been working hard on this year. 

“Making sure we’re playing in the right parts of the field, giving the forwards direction, then giving the backs the ball when the time is right. 

“Our colts coach Ed Morgan worked a lot with me on that and that has helped a lot. 

“We had a tough loss to Easts in the last game I played. They are pretty red hot and leading the competition but we’re in the mix. Hopefully we get through to finals, then it all sort of starts again then.”

Dillon is one of nine NSW Waratahs players picked in the 30-man squad. He’ll play alongside Bryn Edwards, Eamon Doyle and Hwi Sharples from Sydney Uni, Ben Di Staso and Ollie McCrea from Easts, Jack Barrett and Oniti Finau from Randwick and Archie Saunders from Warringah. 

The Australian’s face Georgia on Sunday June 30, Italy on Friday July 5 and Ireland on Tuesday July 9 and will likely need to win all three games to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament. 

“The intensity is obviously going to go up. It’ll be a lot faster, a lot more physical and a lot more skilful so I think you’ll need to be on all the time,” Dillon said. 

“If you make an error, or if you switch off for a second, then the players you’re playing against are good enough to exploit it. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Dillon will also get a chance to train and play alongside talented Queensland flyhalf Harry McLachlan–Phillips who made his Super Rugby debut earlier this year and is one of, if not the most dominant playmakers in Queensland’s first grade competition as a 20-year old. 

“I’m rooming with Harry as well so we’re spending a lot of time together. I watched him play Super Rugby this year so he’s obviously got that experience behind him. 

“He’s a really good game controller but then he knows when to get his hands on the ball and try something himself. 

“Everything runs through him when he’s on the park and he plays with so much confidence so I’d love to learn a bit of that from him and add that to my game.”