WHEN Bo Abra skippered the Saint Stanislaus' College first XV to an undefeated ISA championship in 2017, it was a landmark moment.
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Now the prop can boast being part of another rugby milestone. He was part of the Junior Wallabies squad which won the under 20s Oceania Championship for the first time.
On Saturday night at Bond University on the Gold Coast, the Junior Wallabies squared off with New Zealand in a match which would determine the championship victor.
Since the inception of the championships in 2015 New Zealand had won every title, but Abra and his team-mates broke that streak.
The downed their fierce rivals 24-0 in front of a 2,136 strong crowd.
It was a big moment for Abra, who has stepped up since becoming the ninth Stannies rugby product to play Australian Schoolboys rugby.
"It is always a massive honour to put that jersey on, there's no better feeling," Abra said prior to the decider.
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The Junior Wallabies began their campaign with 64-14 win over Japan. While Abra did not take part in that game, he spent some 30 minutes on the field as he and his team-mates downed Fiji 16-0.
He relished that moment.
"To be going forward and being dominant in a game is always a very special reward. Especially in an international scrum," he said.
On Saturday Abra was named on the bench and was injected into the match in the 68th minute. At that stage Australia led 17-0.
He helped force a New Zealand rolling maul from a line-out into touch, dived on the ball to secure a turnover after a Kiwi handling error, made two tackles and one hit up.
"I think for the boys it's just good reward for the effort they're putting in and confidence in the systems we've got in place," Australian coach Jason Gilmore told rugby.com.au.
"The most pleasing aspect was to keep our opposition scoreless in our last two matches.
"Winning is a habit and we aimed to win this tournament, which is a great effort."
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While the win will boost the confidence of Abra and his team-mates ahead of the under 20s World Cup in June, Gilmore knows the side still has work to do.
"We can't get ahead of ourselves either. World Cup rugby is completely different and in 2016 we beat New Zealand here as well [without winning the overall title] and lost the first game to Scotland over there," he said.
"So we've got to make sure that we keep grounded and keep working hard and keep enjoying what we're doing."
