His year has been anything but smooth sailing yet Max Jorgensen believes he “belongs” in the Test arena.
After a hamstring injury rubbed him out of the final month of Super Rugby and the July Tests, Jorgensen finally made his Test debut for the Wallabies as a 19-year-old against the Springboks in August ten months after a fractured leg denied him the chance of running out in the World Cup.
But just two Tests into his burgeoning career, Jorgensen’s stop-start season continued against Argentina during The Rugby Championship as the outside back picked up a bug that grounded him.
Jorgensen returned home to Sydney with his teammates but was quickly ruled out of the mixer to take on the All Blacks as he was forced to go to hospital.
“I picked up something over there, [which] put me in hospital,” Jorgensen told reporters on the eve of the Wallabies’ grand slam tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“I came back to Sydney [and] I was in hospital. I was out for a good two, three weeks. They put me in a bit of a hold up.
“I was throwing up [and had] headaches. I don’t even know what it was, just a bad bug.”
Max Jorgensen says he’s fit and confident heading onto the Grand Slam tour. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
It’s no surprise, therefore, that Jorgensen highlighted his wretched run of misfortune as the hardest part of his foray into the international game.
“It’s got to be injuries,” he said. “Obviously that happens because we’re all footy players.
“That’s got to be the main thing for me, just overcoming some of those big injuries I’ve had. I’m feeling awesome now, so hopefully I’ll steer clear of them for a while.”
Jorgensen’s return to full health has been overshadowed by the return of fellow schoolboy sensation Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.
Although the 20-year-old was the talk of the town in his final year of school at St Joseph’s, Jorgensen was fully aware that only a year or two earlier it was his rival at The King’s School that garnered the national attention.
“He’s a pure athlete,” Jorgensen said of Suaalii.
“Look at the size of him. He can jump so high. He’s just so athletic. He’s got a footy brain, so obviously it would take him a little bit to pick some stuff up. But he’s a footy player and he’s going to be awesome. It’s awesome for the game.”
(L-R) Max Jorgensen says his former schoolboy rival Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is a pure athlete. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Asked whether his arrival had taken some of the pressure off him, Jorgensen admitted it had “a little”.
As for who was the person people spoke about most at school, Jorgensen quickly heaped the praise on his new teammate who he previously trained with at the Roosters.
“No, I think it was him,” Jorgensen said. “He had a bit more over me. He played schoolboys in Year 10 or Year 9, so that’s pretty crazy.
“We obviously [met] through school and I did pre-season of the Roosters with him a while back. We know each other pretty well.”
Whether Joe Schmidt can squeeze both youngsters into the same 23 for their Grand Slam opening match against England remains to be seen, but after debuting against the Springboks in the wet in Perth, Jorgensen says he now feels like he belongs in the international arena.
“I’ve learned that I belong out there, I can be out there, and I know that,” he said. “That gives me a lot of confidence.
The flyer, who is equally adept at fullback or on the wing, did acknowledge the margins were significantly tighter at the top.
“We’re playing the best players in the world. It’s a very high level and it makes it harder to find those gaps.”
Jorgensen’s last visit to Twickenham was when he was 11 and high in the stands watching the Wallabies take on the All Blacks in the World Cup final with his father.
Should he line up against Steve Borthwick’s men next weekend, it will continue his remarkable, rapid rise.
