Seven days after battling for his state against The British & Irish Lions, Will Skelton will return to club action this Saturday, as Sydney University looks to down the West Harbour Pirates.
Fast making a name for himself after last weekend’s monstrous performance against the tourists in front of a sold-out Allianz Stadium, the mighty lock is one of six players from the NSW team to line up for Sydney Uni in this weekend’s Shute Shield Round 11 match.
Also running on in the gold and blue are props Jeremy Tilse and Paddy Ryan, fellow lock Ollie Atkins, centre and double-try scorer Tom Carter and outside back Tom Kingston. Although the returning HSBC Waratahs are part of an all-star Students team, they are unlikely to have it all their own way against a Pirates side that has also put in some stellar performances in recent weeks, recording a fifth successive win to down last year’s Grand Finalists Southern Districts 30-26 in the last round.
With seven wins from 10 games so far, the Students sit one place ahead of the third-placed Pirates and will welcome the return of some big guns as they set their sights on top spot.
But far from getting carried away, Skelton said, “Playing against The Lions was a fantastic experience but (HSBC Waratahs coach) Michael Cheika made it clear to us that when we didn’t have a game we would be returning to our Shute Shield club and that’s what we are doing.”
Asked about what he would take back to his club from his time on the big stage, such is the professional set up of his club that the 21-year-old added, “There’s really not that much more I can take back to Uni after the (Lions) game, they are already so professional and switched on for every game they play. For me it’s just another game of rugby.”
Round 11 will also see Randwick run out for their ABC Shute Shield TV match against Manly in all-pink jerseys – which will be auctioned after the game – for their annual Ladies Day event as they recognize the support of the club’s valued female contingent.
“I’s always a fun afternoon down at Coogee on Ladies Day,” said backrower Tom Connor, who will this week slot in at outside centre. “I’ve played for Randwick for three years now and the ladies always get looked after and catered for nicely. Hopefully this week they can watch us get up too.”
After a good win against Gordon at home last week, the Galloping Greens will be searching for back-to-back victories this weekend against a Marlins side eager for a boost after going down to Uni last weekend. The contest will be refereed by international whistleblower, Steve Walsh.
Elsewhere in round 11, Warringah takes on Gordon at Pittwater, Southern Districts are at home to Parramatta, Penrith hosts Eastern Suburbs at Nepean and Eastwood travels to North Sydney to take on Northern Suburbs.
As always the 2013 competition will be broadcast live on ABC1 throughout NSW and the ACT on Saturdays from 3pm. Interstate viewers can watch a full replay of each week’s Shute Shield game at 3.30am on Tuesday mornings on ABC1 nationally and rugby fans everywhere can catch all the action online at anytime on ABC iView.
Alternatively, rugby fans across NSW can tune in to ABC Local Radio’s new rugby show, Settling the Score with Niav Owens between 2pm and 5pm every Saturday, for all of your country rugby and Shute Shield news. You can TEXT the program with score updates from whichever game you’re at on 0467 920 222 every Saturday afternoon. Make sure your team gets a mention each week and keep Niav up to date with the latest scores from your competition.
A full fixtures list, together with weekly previews and all the results can be found at www.nswrugby.com.au. Rugby fans can also follow the Shute Shield on Facebook via www.facebook.com/shuteshield or www.facebook.com/abcshuteshield where you can catch game highlights and a preview of the upcoming ABC TV match, and on Twitter via @shuteshield or @abcshuteshield where you can send your thoughts through the week and receive live updates during selected games. You can also catch highlights of every round on the ShuteShieldTV channel on YouTube.
Words by Nathan Roye, picture by www.seiserphotography.com
Warringah v Gordon @ Pittwater Rugby Park (3pm)
Warringah: 1 Ben Ryan, 2 Luke Holmes (C), 3 Luke Preston, 4 Ben Adams, 5 Vincent Wright, 6 Mark Porpiglia, 7 James Casey, 8 Pierce Howell 9 Joshua Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Edward Doyle, 13 Michael Adams, 14 Conrad Gillingham, 15 David Feltscheer.
Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (C), 2 Ronald Hobden, 3 Salesi Maumalanga, 4 Roni Scarano, 5 Mark Johnson, 6 Mark Williams, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Terry Preston, 10 Erik Moss, 11 Vesi Tokalaulevu, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Matthew McDougal, 15 Mark Preston.
Referee: Ian Smith
Penrith v Eastern Suburbs @ Nepean Rugby Park (3pm)
Penrith: 1 Peter Niumata, 2 Kerren Straker, 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4 David Reopoama, 5 Iosua Tonga, 6 Leo Burgess 7 Pita Tupou, 8 Willie Tooala, 9 Solomona Silipa, 10 Siaa Taveuveu (C), 11 Paula Katoa, 12 Henry Lilomaiava 13 Kampo Sione, 14 Fokolulu, 15. Campbell Hislop
Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 Rob McMickan, 4 Richard Stanford 5 Phil Mathers, 6 Pauli Taumoepeau (C), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Luke Irwin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Elijah Niko, 12 Angus Sinclair, 13 Apakuki Ma’afu, 14 Anton Lavin, 15 Damon Anderson.
Referee: Richard Goswell
Northern Suburbs v Eastwood @ North Sydney Oval (3pm)
Northern Suburbs: 1 Nick Curtis, 2 Will Weeks, 3 Nick Lah (C), 4 Michael O’Hea, 5 Chris Thompson, 6 Ben Matwijow, 7 Sam Figg, 8 AJ Gilbert, 9 Michael Dowsett, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Corey Brown, 12 Bill Meakes, 13 Peter Schuster, 14 Liam Windon, 15 Cam Crawford.
Eastwood: 1 Jed Gillespie, 2 Hugh Roach, 3 Dylan Brass, 4 Jared Barry, 5 Mitch Lees, 6 Sione Tau, 7 Hugh Perrett (C), 8 Locky McCaffrey, 9 Shanin Proctor, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Michael McDougall, 13 Cam Mitchell, 14 Nick Reilly, 15 Ben Batger.
Referee: William Houston
Southern Districts v Parramatta @ Forshaw Rugby Oval (3pm)
Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau, 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Andrew Leota, 5 Luke Smart, 6 Lopeti Timani, 7 Jono Hayes (C), 8 Jed Holloway, 9 Grayson Hart, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Rayhan Laulala, 13 Faleula Finau, 14 Ollie Ngungutau, 15. Ben Volavola.
Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Mathew Borg, 3 Luke Troy, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 Andrew Cox, 9 Chris Nay, 10 Sam Yakopo, 11 Sosene Anesi (C), 12 Dan Rawaqa, 13 Damien Fakafanua, 14 Moses Tavola, 15 Tom Woods
Referee: Edward Martin.
Sydney University v West Harbour @ Sydney Uni. Oval 1. (3pm)
Sydney University: 1 Jeremy Tilse, 2 James Willan, 3 Paddy Ryan, 4 Will Skelton, 5 Ollie Atkins, 6 Liam Windon, 7 David Hickey, 8 Tom Boidin (C), 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Daniel Kelly, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Jim Stuart, 14 James Dargaville, 15 Tom Kingston.
West Harbour: 1 David Lolohea, 2 Reg De Jager (C), 3 Vaughan Lomax, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Vaka Manu, 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Matt Coles 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Henry Seavula, 14 Alofa Alofa, 15 Shaun Treweek.
Referee: Matt O’Brien
Randwick v Manly @ Coogee Oval (3pm) (ABC TV GAME)
Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Richard Aho, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 William Munro, 6 Seilala Lam (C), 7 Nathan Paila, 8 Junior Taavili, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 David Horwitz, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Tom Connor, 13 Terence Hepetema, 14 Callum Fryer, 15 Rennie Lautolo
Manly: 1 Jim Gentle, 2 Dave Porecki, 3 Tim Fairbrother (C), 4 Ryan Melrose, 5 Dylan Sigg, 6 Harry Bergelin, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Daniel Alley, 9 Max Wood, 10 Marshall Milroy, 11 Jacob Woodhouse, 12 Peter Gilmore, 13 Brian Sefanaia 14 Richard Hooper, 15 Tom Chesters.
Referee: Steve Walsh
