THE team name was Manly, but there was a distinct Saint Stanislaus’ College flavour to the side which was crowned the State Under 17s Rugby 7s champions on Sunday at Foster.
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The victorious Manly side included Stannies’ talents Cory Hooper, Ben and Martin Rudgley and Cameron Trengrove and was coached by Cory’s father Murray Hooper.
Manly already has a link with Stannies – graduates Hunter Ward and Yool Yool played colts with the Marlins this season – so the club was happy to have the four join with them for the 7s tournament.
“Stannies decided not put a team in, so they were looking for a team to join with,” Murray Hooper explained.
“I rang my old contact at Manly who I used to play at Warringah with as his son is the same age. He said ‘You can come along, we’d love to have them, but you’d better help coach’.”
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Manly opened its campaign with three wins on Friday, downing Central West 48-0, invitational outfit the Spartans 10-7 then Central Coast 28-7 in the seven minutes each way fixtures.
That put it in a strong position, so after beating Liverpool 19-17 on Saturday, the Marlins were assured of a place in the finals.
In the semi-final it was an all Manly affair, but the outfit containing the Stannies talents got the nod with a 17-12 win.
In the decider Hooper’s side found itself up against another invitational representative team in the Cavaliers. It was a close affair, but once more Manly came out on top 21-17 to be crowned state champions.
The decisive try came thanks to the Stannies combination.
“Cavaliers were pushing our try line then turnover, passed out the back line. It was a really, really shockingly bad pass to Cory above his head, he had to turn around to take it,” Hooper said.
“But he ran around the outside of them, went 50 metres, grubbered it through. Their fullback picked it up and kicked it back to Ben Rudgley. He went down the other side then toed it through – he did this beautiful kick that just sat up and just stopped near the goal line.
“Trengrove came over and grounded it. It was just a magical bit of rugby, it was great to watch.
“That try put the result beyond doubt, but Cavaliers scored a late try then converted it.
“All the boys over the weekend were exceptional, no-one did anything wrong, they played brilliantly. All bar Ben Rudgley scored a try at some stage.
“They acquitted themselves really well, they did what they had to do and just kept playing to the highest standard.”
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