Between climbing the Eiffel Tower, admiring the Arc de Triomphe and watching gondolas sail down the Grand Canal, Peter Kimlin actually played some rugby on the Wallabies' recent tour of Europe.

Two minutes, in fact, in a six-week tour.

So it's no surprise his ACT Brumbies teammates have christened him with a new nickname noodles, given he played for just two minutes.

But while his teammates have tried to take the mickey out of Kimlin, it's the 23-year-old who is having the last laugh.

Plucked from relative obscurity to take part in the Wallabies' end-of-year tour to Hong Kong and Europe in November and December, the Brumbies second-rower/loose forward spent the majority of the time on the training paddock.

He got his first and only chance to play for Australia in its final game of the tour, against the Barbarians at Wembley.

And while was only two minutes, Kimlin rates it two of the greatest minutes of his burgeoning rugby career.

"It was awesome, amazing, really hard to explain to be honest," he said. "I couldn't ask for much more. To have the chance to learn off and train with guys like Nathan Sharpe and even spending more time learning off [Mark Chisholm], I got so much out of the tour and so much out of my little bit of game time."

The Wallabies v Barbarians game wasn't an official Test match, so Kimlin is yet to receive an official Wallabies cap.

Instead the Australian players involved in the game earned a unique gold medal for their 18-11 win over their star-studded rivals.With his international career now seemingly headed in the right direction, Kimlin wants to capitalise and force his way into the Brumbies starting side for 2009 albeit as a flanker, not a lock.

The Canberra Grammar School product played a utility lock role for the Brumbies last season under then-coach Laurie Fisher, but sees himself more as a No6 this season.

He will battle with Mitchell Chapman, Julian Salvi, Shawn Mackay and Sitaleki Timani for the blindside flanker role. But Kimlin hopes his international experience will help him improve enough to earn a spot in the team.

"I want to play every game this year and hopefully start in most of them," Kimlin said. "I could play the second row or No.6 but probably No.6 would be my preference due to my running game. With Chappo there and maybe a few others it should make for good competition which he'll be up for and I'll definitely be up for."

The Brumbies have a training-free day today before returning to the paddock tomorrow. Next week they'll move their pre-season training to the south coast for four days.

BRUMBIES TRIALS

January 30 v Wellington Hurricanes at Canberra Stadium.

February 5 v NSW Waratahs at SFS.