General Managers Update

A very tough and long pre-season is now complete and the greens are ready to gallop back into action this Saturday at Latham Park.

Aside from the excitement of trials commencing, we have had a number of our men and women starring on Super Rugby fields, our Junior Academy concluding after another successful summer, supporting charity walks and sadly we lost another stalwart of the club. So please read on...

Trial Games Details:
This Saturday, March 14, we commence 3 weeks of trial matches, with our first assignment against Manly at Latham Park for all grades and colts teams. The SRU competition then starts on Saturday April 4, when we meet West Harbour at Concord Oval in Round 1.

Trial 1 vs Manly this Saturday March 14:

• At Latham Park for both Grade and Colts.
• Grade Kick-off Times: 1st Grade at 3pm, 2nds at 1.25pm, 3rds at 12 noon & 4ths at 10.45am
• Colts Kick-off Times: 1^st Colts at 1.30pm, 2nds at 12 noon & 3rds 10.45am.

Trial Matches 2 & 3 Schedule:

• Saturday March 21 vs. Warringah. Grade teams to play away at Rat Park and Colts are home at Latham Park.
• Saturday March 28 vs. Norths. All games at Latham Park for both Colts and Grade.

SRU Competition: Rounds 1-4:

• Saturday April 4: Round 1 vs West Harbour at Concord Oval.
• Saturday April 11: Round 2 vs Manly at Coogee Oval.
• Saturday April 18: Round 3 vs Norths at Coogee Oval.
• Saturday April 25: Round 4 vs Easts at Woolhara Oval

Our first home game at Coogee Oval will be on Easter Saturday April 11 against Manly and will honour the memory of Jeffrey Leonard Sayle. We will celebrate the life and times of a true legend of our club. So lock that date in as it promises to be a big occasion.

The full Shute Shield season draw can be found online, click here.

Super Rugby Update:
The Super Rugby competition is now up to Round 7 and many Randwick players are at the forefront of it across the various franchises.

The Waratahs have had a very tough start, but we have seen our youngsters Will Harrison, James Ramm and Michael McDonald make debuts and hold their own against the strongest of opposition. Mitch Short also started last weekend and was rock solid.

On the other hand, the Melbourne Rebels are enjoying better success with Andrew Kellaway being a standout and is currently the leading try scorer in the entire Super 15 competition. Andrew Deegan is also making good contributions off the bench.

We also had a number of our players who have played in Waratahs A and Rebels A matches including Ben Donaldson, Kristian Jensen, Triston Reilly, Nathan Den Hoedt, Tom Piroddi, Tom Nowlan and Christian Yassmin. Plus we had Tyzac Jordan, Jackson Mohi and Alex Hills playing for a Hunter invitational team against the Brumbies A squad.

All our boys have flown the Wicks flag extremely well in these games and its a great experience for them and obviously helps with our preparation for this season as well.

Randwick Magic Women’s - Super W Reps:
Our Randwick Magic girls are also in the thick of rep action and we have a number of players who are starring in the NSW Waratahs Super W team.

Congratulations to Kennedy Cherrington, Layne Morgan, Arabella McKenzie, Georgie Friedrichs, Oneata Schwalger Eva Karp and Aaliyah Faamausili – they have all been super impressive in an undefeated team to date.

We look forward to a huge season of Womens Rugby in 2020.

Vale Jim Houston:
Sincere condolences from all at Randwick Rugby go to the family and friends of James ‘Jim’ Houston who sadly passed away last week.

Jim was a flanker, who also filled in as a prop and played for us between 1953 and 1957, including 3 first grade appearances.

A terrible industrial accident in 1957 resulted in the loss of his hand, but despite this, Jim continued to play lower grades for us, which was an incredibly courageous effort. After being forced to retire from rugby, he took on the running of the club social committee and was responsible for organising a host of memorable functions over many years – he was a great clubman!

Jim’s grandsons Ben and Angus are following on the great family tradition at the Wicks and are currently playing in grade and colts respectively, so our thoughts are with them and the rest of the Houston family.

A memorial service will be held for Jim at OLSH Catholic Church, Avoca St Randwick on Friday 27th of March at 1.30pm. RIP Jim.

The Randwick Junior Academy Concludes:
Our Junior Academy has just finished its 9th season and has again been a huge success. This year over 280 boys and girls from all our junior clubs participated and did so under the guidance of 38 volunteer coaches of the absolute highest quality - mostly ex-players of the club.

Well done to Stu Donaldson for his efforts in running the academy this season and filling the huge shoes left behind by its founder Jim Dubos. The feedback from the kids and parents has been fantastic and is testament to his excellent organisational skills.

We sincerely thank the Randwick Rugby Foundation for their generous ongoing support of the Academy and wish all our junior players, coaches and their village clubs the very best of luck for the 2020 season. Enjoy!

Cystic Fibrosis Charity Walk
Randwick Rugby is a community club and is proud of our direct involvement in many charitable and socially responsible causes.

Recently and in that vein we had over 30 of our players, a few coaches and even a board member don the runners to help Pat Borg from our loyal club sponsor Suttons City do a massive 65Km walkathon to raise much needed funds for Cystic Fibrosis research, which his daughter Isabella was an ambassador for.

We are glad to report that Pat did complete the 65Km in under 13 hours and our players did a respectable amount of Km’s around the harbour foreshores to help ensure he did. Lots of money was raised and we are proud that so many Wicks took part.

Key Dates for your Calendar!:

• First Home Game & Jeffrey Sayle Celebration Day - Saturday April 11 at Coogee Oval vs Manly.
• Randwick Annual Lunch - Friday June 26 at Dockside Darling Harbour.
• Back to Randwick Day - Saturday June 27 at Coogee Oval vs Easts.

So there is a fair bit going on already in 2020 and it only going to heat up as the season gets underway.

Good luck to all our teams playing this weekend and those players involved in Super Rugby.

Up the Wicks!

Regards
Mark