Waikato's Austin Anderson has been named as one of the Promising Players of the Year in the 2024 Rugby Almanack. Photo / Photosport
Waikato's Austin Anderson has been named as one of the Promising Players of the Year in the 2024 Rugby Almanack. Photo / Photosport
Waikato Rugby #1244 and former Te Awamutu Sports midfielder Austin Anderson has been named as one of the Promising Players of the Year in New Zealand’s 2024 Rugby Almanack.
Currently edited by Clive Akers, Campbell Burnes and Adrian Hill, the Rugby Almanack is the world’s longest-running rugby book of record.
It was first published in 1935 to cover the previous season’s first-class rugby in New Zealand.
Now in its 88th edition, the 2024 Rugby Almanack records another huge year, including the All Blacks in the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Rugby Championship and the Bledisloe Cup.
It also includes Sky Super Rugby Aupiki, Farah Palmer Cup, Black Ferns Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific, Māori Rugby, the Bunnings Warehouse NPC, the Heartland Championship, some schoolboy and club rugby, and a full summary of international sevens rugby.
The Promising Player of the Year qualifications are usually reserved for players in their debut season or first full season at first-class level.
Each year, five of these promising players are named. The other four for the 2023 season were Canterbury’s Tahlor Cahill and Blair Murray, Counties Manukau’s Josh Taula and Otago prop Rohan Wingham.
The 2024 Rugby Almanack, edited by Clive Akers, Campbell Burnes and Adrian Hill.
The text below is an excerpt from the recently published 2024 Rugby Almanack:
“Austin Richard Charles Anderson (Waikato) established a regular starting place in the Waikato team in his debut season at first-class level.
The 19-year-old, 1.86m, 94kg second-five proved adept at advancing past the gain line with footwork rather than running straight ahead into contact and delivered accurate, well-timed passes.
He received the Waikato Emerging Men’s Player of the Year award for his season’s efforts and rounded out the year with a two-year contract with the Brumbies for Super Rugby Pacific 2024-2025 after having been in their 2023 Elite Development squad.
Austin Anderson was born in Perth, Western Australia on November 18, 2003.
He attended Quinns Beach Primary School (2009-2015), followed by three years at Aranmore Catholic College (2016-2018).
During this time, his main playing position was first five-eighth and he represented the West Australia under 15 teams at both rugby and rugby league in 2018, and during that year signed a three-year junior contract with the North Queensland Cowboys rugby league team.
His family moved to New Zealand in 2019 and he attended Rotorua Boys’ High School, going straight into the first XV, and the Bay of Plenty under-16 team, at first five-eighth.
He had two years at Hamilton Boys’ High School (2020-2021), making the first XV both years, mostly at fullback the first year and at second-five in his second year.
During this time, he was selected in the Chiefs’ under-18 team (2020 and 2021), the New Zealand Schools rugby league team (2020) and the New Zealand Schools rugby team (2021).
In 2022, he joined the Te Awamutu Rugby and Sports Club and represented the Chiefs’ under-20 and Brumbies’ under-19 teams.”
