If you wound the clock back a little over a month and asked Johannes Logan if, after helping Polding to an admirable sixth at the NSW Primary School Sports Association Championship, he’d given earning a state gig a second thought you’d have been given a simple answer.
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“No, not really”.
But the 12-year-old outside back did just that, fast forward a month and now he’s a little over 24 hours away from taking the field with NSW’s Invitational XV – essentially the state’s second XV – at this week’s NSWPSSA Quad-Series at Sydney’s Concord Oval.
Logan, from St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, will line up for the Invitational XV in games against NSW’s first XV and also St Augustine’s College and Trinity Grammar School.
The two schools actually come into the series in place of South Australia and Queensland, both pulled out, in a welcome boost for both NSW sides.
“I wasn’t expecting to get picked at all,” Logan said.
“My goal was just to play well at the [NSWPSSA championship], so it was pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to the [Quad-Series].”
Logan’s side comes into the tournament on the back of a bumper preparation too, including training sessions at The King’s School, Endeavour Sports High and The Hills Sports High, along with trial games against King’s and Parramatta’s under 13s.
Logan’s side has also faced-off against NSW’s top side as well, and while they haven’t managed to beat them they’ve been strong in defeat.
Strong enough to suggest a boilover is possible on Thursday when they meet again.
“That’s the goal,” Logan smiled.
“King’s and Parramatta were huge, the King’s side was all under 13s and the Parramatta side was a mix of under 12s and under 13s.
“We played pretty well in both of those games too.
“We haven’t beaten [NSW’s first XV] but we didn’t get smashed either, we didn’t do too badly.
“St Augustine’s and Trinity, I’m not really sure (about them). It’ll be tough but I think we should be able to come away with wins hopefully.”
Logan, who floats between inside centre and fullback for his club side Orange Emus, said he’s expecting to line up in the centres for NSW too, and maybe shift into the custodian role at times as well.
“Normally I play inside centre or fullback but I think I’ll rotate between inside and outside centre, maybe play a bit of fullback too,” Logan said.
Logan and his NSW side train on Tuesday and have a jersey presentation at Rugby Australia HQ after that, before facing St Augustine’s and Trinity on Wednesday.
They’ll face the other NSW side on Thursday in a blockbuster finale.