The world ain't seen nothing yet Israel Folau has made an enormous impact in his first season. From the man who lured him to rugby, to the Test five-eighth with whom he has played only a handful of games, and the Brumby who tried to exploit his inexperience, players and coaches say the best is yet to come from Israel Folau. "I've got a good feeling my favourite Izzy moment is still out there," Waratahs coach Michael Cheika said. He is only just starting to get his head around the game. It is a sobering thought for teams preparing to face a Wallabies side in the Ewen McKenzie era. Folau has demonstrated in just 28 games of Super and Test rugby that he is almost impossible to stop. Give him space and time - and a decent run-up under the high ball - and he will make you pay. Israel Folau celebrates scoring a try at Murrayfield last weekend. There were eight tries for the Waratahs this year, and nine so far for the Wallabies. If he scores one against Wales this weekend he will equal the record set by fellow dual international Lote Tuqiri for the most scored in one season by an Australian Test player. Will Genia made the point nicely in Cardiff this week. Asked by a Welsh journalist whether he would pick Leigh Halfpenny or Folau as his fullback, Genia nominated his teammate. The journalist pointed out that Halfpenny, the most reliable goalkicker in world rugby and a potent attacking threat, had been shortlisted for the prestigious International Rugby Board player of the year award. Surely that said something, he inferred. Genia chirped back: "Who would you want running at you?" Certainly not Folau - an athlete who can sidestep Jonathan Sexton, fend monster prop Alex Corbisiero and skin Halfpenny in the space of a few seconds, as he did to score his second try in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in June. Quade Cooper was watching that match as a Wallabies exile but soon learnt what it meant to have Folau in his corner. "It makes my life a lot easier; having a 105-kilogram fullback is very damaging when he comes into the line," Cooper said. Being able to break tackles the way he does, and find the try line as he does, and to secure balls from kicks is great, it adds a whole other dimension to our game. To know that when he's coming forward to the ball that we're going to get it back and be able to play off it is a great thing for us to have moving forward. Despite the crowd-pleasing displays, Folau's attacking potency is not the most satisfying thing about his development this year in rugby. Cheika, who signed the 24-year-old when a deal to return to league fell over 14 months ago, says his favourite Izzy moment was in defence. "I really remember his performance in our game against the Chiefs [in round 10], when he made two try-saving tackles in the corner and it probably won us the game," Cheika said. He was still learning at the time, his positional play at the back needed work, he wasn't 100 per cent sure about where he needed to be defensively. But he worked really hard at the stuff and in that game he came through for us. Every team tried it early on. The new rugby player was wrapping his mind around the positional demands of playing fullback and the furious contest for possession that is the breakdown in rugby. Christian Leali'ifano, now one of Folau's closest teammates, was part of a Brumbies side that trained their cross-hairs on the rugby rookie this year. "We targeted him a little bit early on, he was bouncing in and out of fullback and wing and we found the positional play was one thing we could try to isolate him on," Leali'ifano said. But now we've seen him develop and read it a lot better, he's worked with coaches and other players who know that position and it's not a weakness in his game any more. Leali'ifano had heard a lot about Folau by the time he and the former rugby league superstar were first picked in the Wallabies 50-man training squad early this year. He had observed his skills, but was wary of the personality that sometimes comes with such precocious talent. "I always thought, seeing as though he'd been in the spotlight and watching how he carried himself, that he would be a bit of a 'big dog', or someone who had gotten carried away," Leali'ifano said. There's guys we all know like that, but not Izzy, he was humble, so real and down to earth. That impressed me the most. If Cooper, Cheika and Leali'ifano are right - if the Wallabies have only scratched the surface of their potential with Folau in their back line - there could be happy days ahead for Australian rugby. Cooper revealed he and Folau had been working closely with Wallabies attack coach Jim McKay and drawing inspiration from rugby league. "We've looked at combinations like [Melbourne, Queensland and Kangaroos teammates] Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk, how they feed off each other, and it's something we want to emulate in our game with the Wallabies," he said. Being able to inject a bit of an instinctive connection into games is something we've been quite happy about, but we also want to be better. Jimmy McKay is very big on little partnerships and that's something that me and Izzy have worked at. After a few weeks off, Folau will begin his second pre-season in rugby with the Waratahs. The man who convinced him to stay in the code, and be around for the 2015 World Cup, says there are challenges ahead for Folau and the teams in which he plays. "He is obviously going to be heavily targeted," Cheika said. But I can't imagine that he's not going to keep developing. When you show that much in your first year in the code, it is hard to imagine he's not going to kick on.