Leilua leading young student cohort

At the ripe old age of 33, University of Queensland prop Reuben Leilua is one of the eldest statesmen within BLK Queensland Premier Rugby and by far the eldest amongst his teammates at St.Lucia.

The starting XV named for University’s Round 5 clash against Easts this weekend has an average age of just 21.6, with only four players including Leilua aged over that margin. The youngest player in the students line-up will be Angus Scott-Young, who is still yet to celebrate his 19th birthday.

A lone wolf amongst the students pack, the next eldest player in the team is aged just 24, but the age gap between Leilua and his Red Heavies team mates doesn’t bother the experienced prop.

“It’s good being the eldest, I can offer some experience to the younger players but they also have a lot of advice to contribute,” Leilua said.

“Youthfulness works in our favour. We had a tough lost in Round 1 against Souths but we’re building a bit of momentum now with three wins on the trot and that’s our driving force.”

While youth can be beneficial in many areas of the game, there is no substitute for years of experience when it comes to the dark arts of set-piece, which is where Leilua has excelled in a mentoring capacity.

“I feel like a mentor within the group in a number of ways. I’ve been able to help a lot with set-piece in terms of developing both our scrum and line-out, but we all work off each other and try to give 100% each week.”

2015 saw Leilua represent Queensland Country in the National Rugby Championship, where his capabilities at both loose and tight-head prop helped the Country side boast one of the most successful scrums in the competition.

This Saturday will see him come up against a number of his Country teammates and he is excited about the challenge.

“I’m looking forward to it, playing against players from the Queensland NRC teams is a great challenge. Especially with the likes of AJ (Campbell) and Tyrell (Barker) in the Easts forward pack as well as players like Mack (Mason) and Elliott (Hagen) in the backs who are exciting to watch and play against.”

As both sides prepare to go head-to-head at David Wilson Field this Saturday, both the Students and the Tigers will field a number of young talented players, as will the other six clubs in action during Round 5. As a player who has been around Premier Rugby for a long time, Leilua is impressed with the next crop of talent emerging from the club ranks.

“Overall I’m really impressed with the players coming through. We have a lot of depth in Queensland Rugby and we’re developing a big playing pool to chose from which will benefit representative sides and the Reds in years to come.”