He scored a try, set up another and played his part in a famous win over the Crusaders, but former Wallabies Morgan Turinui and Matt Dunning believe there’s one missing part to Zac Lomax’s game that won’t be achieved overnight: game awareness.
After a more than promising debut against the Drua earlier this month, Lomax started for the first time against the Crusaders last weekend since sensationally joining the Force from the NRL.
On the surface, the code-hopper’s game was highly promising as he scored in the second half during the Force’s massive 31-26 come-from-behind victory over the reigning champions.
Watch the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport
Force halfback Henry Robertson cleverly sought to bring him into the game by regularly kicking for him – and even better, the tactic paid off on several occasions despite Lomax looking to offload rather than drop his body height and go to ground.
Lomax also played a key role in the Force’s first try in the 35th minute, as he moved from the right side of the field to the left and spectacularly combined with Dylan Pietsch in the build-up to Robertson’s try.
Then came his try to level the scores at 19-19 as the game approached the hour-mark.
READ MORE: Butters wins appeal despite lawyer’s bizarre dog interruption
READ MORE: Elijah Hollands admitted to hospital, Carlton confirms
READ MORE: Real reason for star’s shocker in game that sealed coach’s fate
But it was the Crusaders’ next strike soon after that showcased Lomax’s rawness in rugby, as the winger failed to rush up in defence and shut down an attacking raid. Instead, the cross-coder was parked on his heels and was burned by loose-forward Dom Gardner in the lead-up to Noah Hotham’s try in the 58th minute.
One minute later, Lomax was replaced – and the decision to bring off the State of Origin star proved a smart one, as the Force scored twice to seal a famous five-point win.
While Cron said he would have been happier to have the former Parramatta Eel at the club for a pre-season, the Force coach said he was pleased with Lomax’s involvement and expected him to “only get better”.
Former Wallabies prop Matt Dunning agreed, saying on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts that it was great to see him “get over the line” early but believed he was still coming to grips with the game.
“Probably game awareness,” said Dunning, having been asked by host Sean Maloney to dissect his game.
“He’s great in the air and has good awareness. But obviously some of his decision-making was where I saw he probably needs a bit of work.”
Turinui was effusive in his praise of Lomax’s attributes, but highlighted a defensive passage that allowed Gardner to break free and set up Hotham as an area where the former NRL star needed to find his feet.
“Everything that’s individual is excellent,” Turinui said.
“This is an outstanding footballer. So if it’s kick a ball, you go and chase and get it. If it’s make a line break, make a pass, if it’s beat someone one-on-one, if it’s try and get over the game line in a carry, absolutely outstanding. He’s an impressive physical specimen.
“The connection stuff, the stuff where you link to other people, the backfield coverage, the Hotham try that we showed, he should have been able to come up and close [the] second last attacker because Ben Donaldson was behind him taking last.
“Now, some of that’s Ben Donaldson [not] saying, ‘Go Zac, go, close, close’ communication-wise. Instead, he gets caught on his heels.
“In rugby league, what would he have done there? He’d have come in and gone whack. So it’s in his head, you can imagine he just wants to do the right thing.
“What needs to happen now is [chatting with] all those guys around him. Lots of chat with the Kurtley Beales and George Bridges through the week, lots of comms from Mac Greely and Ben Donaldson in the backfield.
“The more certain he can be about what his role is in the multi-connected layers of multi-phase attack, multi-phase defence, the better he’s going to be.”
The Western Force is the only team in Super Rugby Pacific that won’t play in Super Round in Christchurch this weekend, with Cron’s men to enjoy a bye-round.
