Bond’s strong proving ground
BOND University is driving the Gold Coast’s growing status as a nursery for future Wallabies stars.
The presence of Angus Blyth, Hayden Sargeant and Tipene Mavoa in the 2018 Junior Wallabies set-up follows the Bullsharks last year having five players in the national under-20 squad: Hamish Stewart, Dylan Riley, Gavin Luka, Harry Nucifora and Blyth.
While Queensland Premier Rugby silverware has proven elusive for Bond since they took over from the Gold Coast Breakers, success has instead come in the talent they have been able to nurture.
Stewart and Alex Mafi both have forced their way to be Queensland Reds regulars. Angus Blyth is also tied to the franchise until the end of 2020.
Riley has scored a professional contract in Japan.
“The recruitment strategy over the last three years is to get these talented youngsters in and we believe in building from the bottom up,” said Bullsharks director of rugby Sean Hedger.
“Yeah, we’re not getting the premiership success at the moment but for example, if the last six Australian 20s players all ran on in premier grade at the same time, there is a fair chance we would have success.
“The fact is we are producing professional players, it’s just they haven’t played as often as we would have liked for Bond University.
“What you want a rugby program to do – through the coaching, through the other players in the club – is push them to their full potential and we seem to be able to do that at the moment.”
Hedger identified Sargeant, who scored a try on debut for the Junior Wallabies on Tuesday night, as the best sign that the club’s efforts are working.
“He never made any reps in schoolboys,” Hedger said.
“A lot of it is on him, he is a really dedicated trainer.
“You could argue Gavin Luka, Angus Blyth, they are already identified by the ARU, by Queensland Rugby, but Hayden Sargeant wasn’t, so he has sort of developed while he has been here.”
Australia play New Zealand at Bond tomorrow night in the Oceania Rugby U20s Championship title match.