New Western Force recruit Zac Lomax has credited Wallabies prop Angus Bell for guiding his push towards moving to Rugby Union.
Lomax was unveiled on Tuesday in Sydney before moving his life over to the west to join the Western Force.
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The 26-year-old last played Rugby Union as a 15-year-old before moving to Wollongong and joining NRL club St George Illawarra Dragons.
With Lomax’s future up in the air amid rumoured R360 interest, the former NSW and Australia league star had a guiding light in the Wallabies prop.
“I'm really close mates with Angus Bell, actually. I've been in real close contact with him throughout the whole process,” he said when asked if he had spoken to other union stars.
“We’re actually managed by the same people, and he's a real good friend of mine, so he was a big factor as to what I wanted to go over too.
“Their take on the game is always really good, and they love how Rugby Union is run along with the travel. I love that I’m going to be able to hopefully play alongside him.”
Bell has found himself as a league whisperer of sorts, becoming close with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii after the pair played school footy together before the former Rooster came to the Waratahs.
Suaalii and Lomax featured together at State of Origin level, with the Wallaby walking past a packed RA headquarters minutes before the press conference started.
“It's been really good to see Joey Suaalii move over. He's been really good and I've got no doubt he's on the up and up as a player and an athlete,” Lomax said.
RA CEO Phil Waugh applauded the move whilst reaffirming his signing was a ‘disciplined’ move and measure by the organisation ahead of next year’s home World Cup
“I think that the work that Joe's [Schmidt] been doing under Pete's leadership with the culture that's been built in that Wallabies environment, the more world-class international athletes that we can put into that system the more chance we have of going deep into that tournament,” Waugh believes.
“We've been really disciplined right across the organisation for a number of years now to ensure that the game's financially sustainable and we know that the performances of the Wallabies is really important to that, but as we look at our overall cost envelope, we need to ensure that we're disciplined in how we spend that.
“We'll continue to have that cost discipline across the organisation and the real opportunity ahead of us is to get the country behind us and obviously drive the revenue line as well.”
