Wunderkind Jorgensen firms as Wallabies World Cup prospect

SYDNEY : Max Jorgensen's most complete performance in a New South Wales Waratahs shirt last Saturday night further slashed the odds on the outside back being unleashed in Wallabies gold before his 19th birthday in September.

Less than a year out of school, Jorgensen was expected to spend this Super Rugby Pacific season learning his craft as an understudy to Kurtley Beale - the 95-cap fullback who was the last teen prodigy to emerge from Sydney's St Joseph's College.

Beale has been unable to play this year because he faces a sexual assault charge, which he denies, and Jorgensen was therefore thrown straight into the Waratahs team to make his debut in the season-opener against the ACT Brumbies.

He has not disappointed.

Two tries in that match, the first when he somehow slipped his slender frame between two hulking Wallabies forwards and the second a classic winger's finish in the corner, have been followed by two more in nine further appearances.

While he failed to cross in last Saturday's 32-18 win over Fijian Drua, a victory which ensured the Waratahs a spot in the post-season playoffs, Jorgensen looked thoroughly at home at fullback and was involved in four of the team's five tries.

The 18-year-old was a threat every time he injected himself into the backline, showing off not only his impressive speed and balance but also a maturity in choices about when to pass, kick or take a tackle.

"He did some great things in attack," Waratahs coach Darren Coleman said of the Man of the Match.

"He's picking his times on when to run back, and he's getting offloads away, if not tackle breaks. So he's warming into it."

It might appear premature for a teenager to attract such excitement after only 10 Super Rugby outings, but Australian rugby