Farm dream takes ACT Brumbies Ryan and Lachlan Lonergan duo to Super Rugby AU final

So the kid went to work on building some football posts for he and his brother Lachlan to use, long before they became ACT Brumbies players in a squad on the verge of Super Rugby AU glory.

There was one problem.

"They were terrible, they were short, you can't even walk under them now," Lachlan said.

That much 22-year-old scrumhalf Ryan is prepared to concede to his brother, a 20-year-old hooker slowly making his mark at Brumbies headquarters.

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"Mate, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. They were pretty terrible, but it was pretty cool to have a little set up in the backyard," Ryan said.

It set the scene for touch football battles between two kids mad about the Brumbies. Ryan was always Matt Giteau, Lachlan was always Stirling Mortlock.

"I smoked him every time," Lachlan said.

"We said we wanted to be at the Brumbies and play together, a lot of people say that but not too many people get to actually do it. We're not taking it for granted, we know it's special. We're just trying to give it our all."

Ryan is pressing for selection in the Brumbies' match day squad for the club's first home grand final in 16 years on Saturday week, when they will host either Queensland or Melbourne.

But when the brothers aren't kicking goals or throwing lineouts at club headquarters in Bruce, they're on the family farm fixing fences or feeding cattle.

Here, by the goalposts where they grew up idolising their heroes, is where the reality dawns on two emerging rugby players realising a childhood dream.

Yet at times this year that reality has been taxing. Lachlan says he has "basically played one half of footy for the whole year", because he can't return to clubland while in the Brumbies' coronavirus bubble.

Ryan takes a moment to think and says "I've played stuff all footy this year for a lot of work." But that's just the way the dominoes have fallen in a campaign momentarily derailed by a pandemic.

After all, there could be worse things to be doing than learning from Wallabies. In Ryan's position sit Nic White and Joe Powell. In Lachlan's is Folau Fainga'a and an all-star front-row.

"You could stay in your shell and try to just play the way you know, but that's only going to get you so far," Ryan said.

"There is a wealth of knowledge out there, you'd be dumb not to go out there and make the most of it.

"Being able to learn off what they do, and obviously asking questions, the boys are really open about it. They'll come up and give you tips. If you want to get better, you've got to do that."

For Lachlan it is much the same story when he packs down in a scrum alongside - and opposing - the likes of Fainga'a, Allan Alaalatoa, Scott Sio and James Slipper.

"Sometimes in scrums you think 'I'm one of the luckiest young hookers around, I've got the best props in the world against me and one of the best Australian hookers to learn from'," Lachlan said.

"I never win a scrum [at training], I'm pretty used to it. It's annoying, but it's learning. The only way you get better is by doing more of it. I'll just try to get better each week and hopefully that win will come soon."