John Ulugia's unlikely ACT Brumbies comeback set to continue

The 37-year-old was thrown into the deep end at the 11th hour on Friday night when Lachlan Lonergan was a late withdrawal from the team's Super Rugby season opener against the NSW Waratahs.

His night then changed drastically early in the contest after Connal McInerney left the field and failed a head injury assessment in the fifth minute of the match.

Ulugia produced an outstanding 73-minute stint and set the platform at both scrum and lineout time in the 31-25 victory.

"[Ulugia] is part of our squad at the moment, he's been training all week with us," Larkham said. "[Lachlan] was not quite available for selection this week.

"Lug, two weeks ago he wasn't in any training program, he's brought himself up to speed pretty quickly.

"He was a standout in terms of what he achieved. His lineout throwing was superb, then to lock down the scrum, those scrums were pretty epic in terms of the size we were coming up against, that was a very special performance."

Lonergan is expected to return for next Sunday's clash against the Auckland Blues, however with World Rugby mandating minimum concussion stand-down periods, McInerney is unlikely to feature in the contest.

That means Ulugia will likely remain in the Brumbies 23 for Super Round.

It's a remarkable comeback for a veteran who was happily retired and coaching the franchise's pathways players just a few weeks ago.

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham tapped Ulugia on the shoulder after Billy Pollard went down with a hand injury and informed him he was the emergency hooker option.

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The veteran last played for the ACT Brumbies in 2010 before shifting to the NSW Waratahs for three seasons. A nine-year stint in France followed and last season he turned out for Vikings in the John I Dent Cup.

Ulugia played for the Brumbies in an end-of-season trial last year in what was expected to be his final outing at the elite level.

The circumstances, however, dictated otherwise and Larkham was impressed with the 37-year-old's ability to step up to the Super Rugby arena at short notice.

"Lug has been all around the world," he said. "He started with the Brumbies way back, he's been all around the world and he's brought all of that experience back into the forward pack.

"He's done a bit of coaching in the last year, he's heavily involved in coaching the Canberra competition, the John I Dent Cup, a lot of teams use him.

"He's in our Academy programs and the boys are just reaping the rewards of all his experience at the moment with him being a part of the program. Certainly a big shout out to Lug for that performance."

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