The MacKillop Saints Rugby Union Club is proud to announce that they will be back for this season’s NTRU club Rugby Union competition, with up to 4 teams representing our sporting community across the boys and girls under 14s and 16s divisions. The action kicks off this Friday night at Rugby Park, Mararra for both our boys teams, with our girls teams both getting an extra week’s holidays having landed the bye for Round 1. This season, Director of Rugby, Mr Matthew Sharp, will coach both boys teams, and 2021-2022 premiership winning coach, Mr Robbie Butcher, will be back to spearhead the girls’ title defence.
The under 16 Boys will open our club’s season at 8.10pm on Field 1 against competition heavyweights, the Casaurina Cougars. Mr Sharp said that the Cougars are always a tough challenge no matter what grade they participate in and that he was expecting a great opening round game between the two sides. Mr Sharp delivered this team announcement to his players on Wednesday night, after training –
David Stevens
Nathaniel Brown
Trent Harvey
Manu Carter (club debut)
Matthew Neuman
Alfred Walker
Nathan O’Sullivan (club debut)
Marley Carter (club debut)
Jack Yewsang
Ryan S (vc)
Jarayl Clayton (club debut)
Koen Hughes (C)
TBA
Jordan Kirkham-Chandler (club debut)
Max Antella (club debut)
Interchange (no particular order) – Curtis Guttwoltz, Lachlan Coble, Noah Ferguson (club debut), Nash White (club debut), Campbell Stolberg, Cohen Patch (club debut)
Injured – William McCallum (2 weeks)
In total, 9 players will make their official Saints club Rugby Union debuts in this competition and will be looking to make strong performances. Manu and Marley Carter are two such debutants, having arrived from NSW, and had big impacts at the Hottest 7s earlier this month. Other names to keep an eye on include Nathan O’Sullivan – a handy all round player who has been training well, and Curtis Guttwoltz, who makes his Saints return after a couple of year spent out elsewhere in the wilderness. Meanwhile, the Saints are looking forward to welcoming back Max Antella and Jordan Kirkham-Chandler, who were mainstays in our junior school league teams, back under our Saints sporting banner.
Our under 14s Boys will kick off their campaign at 8.20pm on NTRU Field 2 in a local derby of sorts against the Swampdogs. The under 14s team are still chasing a few extra players to round out the squad so any interested players are invited to make contact. The u14s Boys team list will be announced after a team run on Friday during Period 4.
All supporters and fans are invited to come down and cheer on out Saints!
