Force snap up Sevens flyer
Australian Sevens star Junior Rasolea has signed with the Western Force for the 2013 and 2014 Super Rugby seasons.
The livewire centre has been a regular with the Aussie Thunderbolts in the abridged version of the game, after he was recruited by national coach Michael O'Connor prior to the 2011 Gold Coast Sevens.
The hard-running, ball-carrying midfielder was spotted playing for an academy side that upset the Thunderbolts in the grand final of the Noosa International Sevens, with Rasolea's performance seeing him immediately drafted into the national side. The former Queensland Schoolboy representative went on to start in five of seven games at the Gold Coast event.
The ex-Anglican Church Grammar School student, who started in the centres for Fiji during their best-placed finish (sixth) at his second IRB Junior World Championships in 2011, says it was another graduate from his alma mater that helped form his decision to join the Western Force.
"I went to Churchie in Brisbane which was the same high school as David Pocock," he said. I remember seeing clips of him at school playing inside centre; he was a star and someone I looked up to.
"I've seen how players like him and James O'Connor have developed and what they've gone onto after starting with the Force and it seemed like the best place for me to develop my rugby."
The 21-year-old is keen to begin staking his claim for his Super Rugby debut, saying: "My goal is to make the 22 but the biggest thing is to have some input into the team, developing the team and developing my own game.
"Sevens has been great for my development and I'm looking forward to bringing a lot of those skills – such as counter attacking – with me."
RugbyWA CEO Vern Reid lauded the signing of an "exciting young prospect" for the Western Force in 2013.
Said Reid: "We're very pleased announce Junior and Sias Ebersohn as the first of several new signings for the Western Force for the 2013 season."
