Matt Giteau, who has yet to play a Super 12 game, has been given a chance to stake a claim for a place in Australia's rugby union World Cup squad for next year.
The ACT Brumbies' scrumhalf and flyhalf was the surprise selection announced on Wednesday in the 27-man Wallaby squad for the November tour of Ireland, Argentina, England and Italy.
NSW hooker Adam Freier and Queensland open-side flanker David Croft were the other uncapped players in the squad, a year out from the World Cup.
Giteau, who turns 20 on Sunday, said "there was no better birthday present than to make the Wallabies" and it maintained his "unbelievable ride" of the last year.
In that time, Giteau has earned selection in the Australian sevens, under-21 and Wallaby squads and was promoted from the Brumbies academy to their Super 12 squad.
He was chosen as third string scrumhalf for the tour. Skipper and first-choice number nine George Gregan is expected to return to Australia at some stage of the tour to be with his wife who is expecting their second child.
Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was made aware of Giteau when he attended an Australian sevens training session earlier this year.
"Glen Ella, who coached the sevens the previous year said 'watch out for this young Giteau, he's a cheeky little bugger'", Jones said.
Impressed by Giteau's skills during that session, subsequent video footage and a visit to last weekend's Brisbane club grand-final confirmed his initial thoughts.
Jones said Gregan was likely to fly from the Britain to Australia and back between the Ireland and England Tests.
He said the Wallabies would look to play with a bit more pace and inventiveness in their phase play on the tour and he would look at changing the starting line-up.
"The tour is very much a benchmark for us. We had some steady improvement this year, but we've got a good tour ahead of us, playing against three of the better countries in the world away from home," Jones said.
"Results over the last 12-18 months of international rugby very much favours the home team, I think 76 percent of games have been won by the home side, so we are going to get a really good indication of how much improvement we've made and how much we need to make in terms of the World Cup."
Australian squad
Backs: George Gregan (captain), Matthew Burke, Elton Flatley, Matt Giteau, Daniel Herbert, Chris Latham, Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock, Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor, Ben Tune, Chris Whitaker.
Forwards: Matt Cockbain, David Croft, Ben Darwin, Owen Finegan, Adam Freier, David Giffin, Justin Harrison, Toutai Kefu, David Lyons, Patricio Noriega, Jeremy Paul, George Smith, Nick Stiles, Daniel Vickerman, Bill Young.