By Mark Bowling
ST Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace old boy Tom Lucas is expected to be a standout for Australia’s rugby sevens at this month’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
It promises to be another chapter in the story of Brisbane’s Lucas family, one of the country’s greatest rugby families with four brothers in the professional ranks – Ben, Matt, Tom and Isaac – all who developed their playing skills while at Terrace.
“I absolutely loved my time at Terrace and all the opportunities it gave me especially through the rugby program and everything else there,” the 24-year-old said.
“Schoolboy rugby is something I’ll never forget – the camaraderie, playing with your mates each week. It was something special.”
Lucas went on to captain the Australian sevens side and was only denied an Olympic berth after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in 2016.
“That’s the game we play, and that was one of the little setbacks along my path,” he said.
“I think I am a better footballer coming out of it, that’s for sure.”
He is back to full strength, playing in the World Rugby Sevens Series and training hard for next month’s Gold Coast games.
Brother Matt plays halfback for the Brumbies, Ben won a Super Rugby title with the Queensland Reds before joining Montpellier, France and now plies his trade in Japan, while Isaac is on the books at the Reds and has just been selected in the Australian under-20 squad.
“I am busting to see him in action,” father Phil Lucas, himself a formidable footballer for Wests, said about the prospect of watching Tom striving for Commonwealth gold.
“Because he has been injured and missed the Olympics, so to see him in our backyard on the Gold Coast, that is something we won’t miss.”
Brother Matt’s girlfriend, Australian rugby sevens Olympic gold medallist Alicia Quirk will also be competing next month.
“It’s an amazing turn of events and I am very proud of them,” Mr Lucas said.
It’ll be a new-look men’s side for Australia, with nine of the 13 players selected making their Commonwealth Games debuts.
Just Tom Lucas, Sam Myers, Jesse Parahi and James Stannard remain from the team that finished runners-up in Glasgow four years ago.