Lachlan Ilias (born 9 May 2000) is a international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who plays as a for the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL).

Background

Ilias was born in Australia, but is of Greek, Italian, and German heritage. He grew up in the Sydney suburb of

Five Dock Five Dock is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Five Dock is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Location Fi ...

. He played schoolboy rugby union for Trinity Grammar and was in the 2018 Australian Schoolboys Rugby team. He also played junior rugby league with

Leichhardt Wanderers The Leichhardt Wanderers are a rugby league club based at Leichhardt, New South Wales. They compete in the Sydney Combined Competition. Their jersey is traditionally predominantly Red and Black. In recent years they have included white in their ...

in the Balmain junior district.

Career

Early career

Ilias signed a development contract with

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

in 2017. In 2018, after a meeting with

Anthony Seibold Anthony Seibold () (born 3 October 1974) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby league player. He was defence coach with the England national rugby union team, and since 2023 has been head coach for the Manly Wa ...

, Ilias transferred to the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

for the 2019 season.

2021

Ilias made his debut for South Sydney at in his side's 20−16 victory over the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

Sunshine Coast Stadium Sunshine Coast Stadium is a multi-sport venue located at Bokarina in the Kawana Waters urban centre on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. The stadium is the main venue in a sporting precinct that also includes seven fields. Developmen ...

in round 25 of the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

, Ilias also scored a try on debut.

2022

In round 15 of the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season was the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest ...

, Ilias was substituted shortly after half-time during South Sydney's 32-12 loss against St. George Illawarra. South Sydney were down 32-0 at half-time, and Ilias had knocked the ball on from the opening kick off. Ilias played 26 games for South Sydney in the

including all three of the clubs finals matches as they reached the preliminary final for a fifth straight season. Souths lost in the preliminary final to eventual premiers Penrith 32-12. Ilias made his international debut for against on 17 October 2022 at the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received � ...

2023

In round 4 of the

2023 NRL season The 2023 NRL season was the 116th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 26th season run by the National Rugby League. The season consisted of 27 competition rounds, the longest in league history, followed by a finals series ...

, Ilias kicked a field goal during golden point extra-time to win the game for South Sydney over Manly 13-12. Ilias played a total of 24 games for Souths in the 2023 NRL season as the club finished 9th on the table and missed the finals.

2024

After South Sydney lost their opening two games of the

2024 NRL season The 2024 NRL season was the 117th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 27th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season consisted of 27 competition rounds, followed by a finals series contested by the top eight ...

, Ilias was demoted to reserve grade and replaced with Dean Hawkins. In round 5 of the NSW Cup season, Ilias suffered a fractured tibia during South Sydney's match against the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

. It was announced that Ilias would miss a minimum of three months. On 29 April, it was announced by the South Sydney club that Ilias was free to negotiate with other teams at the end of the 2024 season. On 25 November 2024, Ilias signed a two-year deal with the

2025

In round 1 of the

2025 NRL season The 2025 NRL season is the 118th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 28th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The regular season will be followed by a finals series contested by the top eight teams on the competiti ...

, Ilias made his club debut for St. George Illawarra against Canterbury which ended in a 28-22 loss. The following week, Ilias came under fire from head coach

Shane Flanagan Shane Flanagan (born 2 December 1965) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and commentator, and is the head coach of the St George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League . He was the head coach of the Cronulla Sut ...

following the clubs loss against his former side South Sydney. Flanagan said of Ilias “The people who needed to make the decisions didn’t make them or the right ones and didn’t get us into field position".

Statistics

References

External links

Rabbitohs profileGreece profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilias, Lachlan 2000 births Living people Australian people of Greek descent Australian rugby league players Greece national rugby league team players People educated at Trinity Grammar School (New South Wales) Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Sydney South Sydney Rabbitohs players St. George Illawarra Dragons players 21st-century Australian sportsmen