Former Young Yabbies and current South Sydney back-rower Angus Crichton played a massive game of football last Friday with a hat-trick that led the Rabbitohs to a come-from-behind victory against the Titans.
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With Sam Burgess injured it was the former Young player’s job to step into the position that allowed Souths to keep their top-eight hopes alive.
But it was the rampaging performance of Crichton that was the talk of the town, the 21-year-old Young –gun terrorising the Titans to show why he has been earmarked as a future representative player.
"I've had a lot of time with Angus now," Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire said.
"The first couple of years with us he had quite a number of injuries so he hasn't been able to get his game out there but I've always seen signs that he was going to develop into a great player. He came from rugby union a few years ago so he had to learn the game.
“The fact he hadn't played for that two years fighting through injury probably meant he missed a bit of development in learning the game. But he's spent quite a bit of time with our senior guys and talks to them about footy. He's got a thirst to learn the game which is one of his biggest strengths."
He's got a thirst to learn the game which is one of his biggest strengths.
- Michael Maguire.
The latest league super star originally started out playing for the Young Yabbies Rugby Union side going on to play representative rugby in the Australian Schoolboys side in 2013.
In 2014 Crichton switched codes to play in the Sydney Roosters lower grades before he went on in the same year to play in the 2014 Australian Schoolboys side again.
At the end of the season in 2014 Crichton seemed to make a decision and signed a two-year contract with the Rabbitohs where he has already played as a part of their National Youth Competition and now he has stepped up to play in the big leagues.
The Rabbitohs fought back from an early 14-0 deficit to a severely depleted Gold Coast, who had Jarryd Hayne and Nathan Peats looking on from the bench due to State of Origin commitments.
The Rabbitohs were short on troops themselves, losing stand-in skipper Burgess before kick-off to a glute strain.
Things looked grim for Souths as the Titans crossed the line but then Crichton burst through some soft Gold Coast defence to spark a Rabbitohs recovery.
"When he first came in he was just raw," John Sutton said of Crichton.
"He had the strength but didn't know how to use it. At training he would go at 100 miles an hour and get tired very quickly. He's definitely developing rapidly. It's good to see. I'm very proud of the way he has been going."
