GPS Rugby celebrating 100 years: School profiles
JORDAN Petaia was running out for Brisbane State High a year ago. Now he has 11 Super Rugby games under his belt and is in the train-on squad for the Wallabies. It’s the perfect example of how GPS rugby can springboard players into a professional career.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WITH the celebrations for GPS 100 this season, The Courier-Mail is providing extensive coverage of the nine-school rugby competition and its rich history.
GPS rugby 2018: Season preview, team line-ups for opening round
BRISBANE STATE HIGH SCHOOL
GPS Premierships: 16
Most recent: 2016
THE catapult that GPS rugby can be into a professional career is well summed up by Reds hit Jordan Petaia who was running out for Brisbane State High a year ago.
Few have the polish or physical maturity to play 11 Super Rugby games at just 18 years of age, but the fairytale will continue this week with selection in a train-on squad for the Wallabies.
Those watching him play Churchie last year saw a super in-and-away from fullback and pondered that he’d be a good one to follow for 2020 and beyond. But there are times when footwork, an acceleration through contact, instinct and luck all hit the fast-forward button on a career, just like his as a winger-centre.
“The school is really proud of how well Jordan’s done, but he has also shown everyone how hard you have to work for that chance as well,” BSHS director of rugby Dan Ritchie said.
“Old boy Josh Afu (Queensland rugby development officer) spoke to the boys really well and described how the thought, ‘What have I got to go to?’ came into his head after a major injury when playing.
“You play rugby but doing well academically is very important.”
State High has a position in the GPS system like no other because it is a government school with extra diversity, and not just because it is co-ed. It is the school of sevens star Charlotte Caslick as much as rugby league legend Wally Lewis.
Lewis toured with the renowned 1977-78 Australian Schoolboys to Europe and Japan when Mark Ella and Tony Melrose limited his games at inside centre.
Bill McLean was State High’s first Wallabies captain in the 1940s while son Peter played 16 Tests.
Wily World Cup-winning halfback and former Queensland captain Peter Slattery was a State High whiz in the early 1980s with handling and passing that would still be in demand today.
While State High doesn’t have the depth of other schools, teams like the Class of 2009 were exceptional. Nine boys from that undefeated premiership side played Australian Schoolboys that year, including Super Rugby-bound Chris Feauai-Sautia, Paul Alo-Emile and Curtis Browning.
State High’s 38-10 loss to Nudgee College on Saturday did include some sparkling footwork from fullback Grant Tuisamoa and decisive play from hooker captain Nesta Mahina.
10 of the best: Bill McLean, Peter McLean, Wally Lewis, Paul Carozza, Peter Slattery, Samu Kerevi, David Wilson, Chris Roche, Paul Mooney, Chris Feauai-Sautia
CHURCHIE
GPS Premierships: 18
Most recent: 2015
DAVID Pocock was so obsessed with his First XV ambitions at Churchie that he only agreed to a family sailing holiday in the Whitsundays if he could take 100kg of weights with him.
The Wallabies flanker can now laugh at the crazy notion of weights training on a rocking yacht yet he still did what he could in between swimming and tanning.
Pocock also revealed in his 2011 book Openside that his zeal for training and sport was his method of handling the trauma of leaving strife-torn Zimbabwe for the family’s new life.
His rugby career wasn’t given to him on a platter either.
His father Andy worked long hours to make possible his education at Churchie where his school locker was next to fellow Wallaby-to-be Quade Cooper.
The pay-off was big for Churchie in 2005 when Pocock partnered the hop-stepping, scheming Cooper in a shared First XV premiership.
Pocock didn’t play flanker but inside centre to fill a hole for the team that year.
``I didn’t have to make too many tackles with Dave Pocock there beside me,” Cooper said.
The school in East Brisbane has a rich rugby history across 18 First XV premierships and Wallabies like spring-heeled David Hillhouse and indigenous trailblazer Lloyd McDermott.
The 2014 First XV side rightly ranks with the very best GPS line-ups of modern times with an undefeated run by an average score of 50-13.
The Queensland Reds are reaping the rewards through Izaia Perese, Angus Scott-Young, Liam Wright and Harry Hockings while Harley Fox was Australian Schoolboys captain.
Origin young gun Kalyn Ponga lit up the side that season and his rugby league route was also the choice of Brodie Croft (Storm) and Jaydn Su’A (Broncos).
The captaincy this season is with bustling Queensland Schoolboys hooker Zac Crothers while he will have prop John-Paul Tominiko as his tight-head rock.
“As a school, we are very proud of what our old boys have achieved in every area of life,” coach Michael Lucas said.
“We reference that a lot in what it means for this team rugby-wise and a lot of the boys aspire to follow in those recent footsteps (from the 2014 team).
“The boys know they represent more than just themselves in the jersey.”
A three-game pre-season tour to Japan has already given Churchie a headstart on the team bonds that are so vital for a short, eight-game sprint like the GPS rugby season.
10 OF THE BEST: David Pocock, Quade Cooper, Lloyd McDermott, David Hillhouse, Kalyn Ponga, Izaia Perese, Ric Trivett, Karmichael Hunt, Ross Teitzel, Nigel “Shredder” Holt
NUDGEE COLLEGE
GPS Premierships: 41
Most recent: 2017 (shared)
WHEN Rocky Elsom was storming through the undefeated 2000 season at Nudgee College there was always a match eve players’ dinner where coloured jelly beans filled a bowl.
They were always coded to the colours of the opposition team.
It was tradition and the shout always went up about what the Nudgee boys would do to the jelly beans and the next day’s rivals, “Eat ‘em alive”.
The custom still goes on and team manager Harrison Westbrook was busy this week hunting down sugary hits in maroon, blue and white for Saturday’s GPS season lift-off against Brisbane State High School at Ross Oval.
Rugby tradition runs deep and Nudgee College will come alive on Saturday when more than 750 boys will turn out in 38 teams across the age groups.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE GPS SCHOOL PROFILES
The college has been a nursery for Wallabies of all kinds. There have been quicksilver backs (James O’Connor, John Fogarty and Ross Hanley) and backline generals (Paul McLean and Elton Flatley).
There have been commanding back-row leaders (Mark Loane, Dallas O’Neill, Sean McMahon and Elsom) and forceful tight five forwards (Glenn Panoho, Sean Hardman, Tony D’Arcy and Kevin Ryan) in the production line of more than 20 internationals.
There have always been great partnerships like O’Neill marauding off the pass of halfback Adrian Hose, one of the five Hose brothers who attended Nudgee, in the back-to-back premierships of 1960-61.
The 66-0 thrashing of arch rivals Gregory Terrace in 2000 was unheard off and three tries came from Elsom, a future Wallabies captain.
Ross Oval is named for the late Jack Ross, a college force for six decades who was described perfectly in three words in a 1950s newsletter: “Figurehead, Inspiration. Indispensable.”
No one is indispensable. The Nudgee rugby caravan rolls on with a new breed, captain Harrison Vella, flyhalf Reesjan Pasitoa, quick-stepping winger Jangala Bennett, centre Joshua Flook and co.
“We connect and respect the past but each season our boys are encouraged to create their own new piece of history,” rugby director Sean Graham said.
“Rugby is a vehicle to learn within our social justice program as well.”
A group of 40 Under-15s recently lived the power of rugby in Yavulo Village Sigatoka where the school is funding the building of a kindergarten in Fiji.
Boots, training jerseys and a song were given away, always strong Nudgee College currency.
10 OF THE BEST: Mark Loane, Paul McLean, Rocky Elsom, Elton Flatley, James O’Connor, Mick Veivers, Kevin Ryan, Sean McMahon, Tony D’Arcy, Dallas O’Neill
ST JOSEPH’S, GREGORY TERRACE
GPS Premierships: 10
Most recent: 2004
THE gifted Michael Lynagh was the heartbeat of a golden period for Terrace rugby when the famous school won five straight premierships between 1977-81.
Such was the regard in which he was held, he led the team on to the field for the last match of 1981 even with no role to play on the final rugby day of his three seasons in the First XV.
The captain had his collarbone broken earlier in the season in a heavy tackle from the late Peter Jackson, a future State of Origin figure, when playing The Southport School.
The First XV won 38 of the 40 games across that era and propelled “Noddy” Lynagh, Tony Parker, Mark McBain, Michael Cook, Damien Frawley and Brendan Nasser towards the Wallabies.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE SCHOOL PROFILES
Such was the depth, beanpole lock Bill Campbell would play 22 Tests and swig from the Bledisloe Cup without ever rising above the school’s Second XV.
No transformation was greater than that of Chris Handy, who made the Terrace Firsts as a halfback in 1967 before his bull-chested, All Black-slaying days as a Wallaby prop.
Jimmy Flynn was the youngest to ever captain the Wallabies at 20 in 1914 and Tony Shaw’s indomitable leadership started at Terrace.
Captain Frawley’s 1980 side was an undefeated juggernaut, racking up a 206-23 points record.
Lynagh’s soft hands and maturity to steer a team at 15, when initially selected for the Firsts, was exceptional.
Up front, Frawley was causing mayhem more unruly than his hair as the “come follow me man”, a phrase coined by Brother Ryan in his effusive post-game reports.
In his biography Noddy, Lynagh recounted how the early words of headmaster Brother Barry Buckley shaped his rugby thinking after questioning his own call to bat after winning the toss in First XI cricket.
“Michael, a decision has been made,’ the headmaster said, “Now all you have to do is make it work.”
Flyhalf Lynagh most often did during his decorated 72-Test career.
“When I left school I naturally came to realise there were other things but because of the close-knit family unit at Terrace, it seemed the most crucial thing was to play well for the First XV,” Lynagh said.
Queensland Schoolboy Will Roach will skipper Terrace this season from the back row, where old boys David Croft and Liam Gill excelled, while winger Glen Vaihu is a sharp finisher.
10 OF THE BEST: Michael Lynagh, Tony Shaw, Jimmy Flynn, Mark McBain, David Croft,
David Dunworth, Damien Frawley, Clem Windsor, Digby Ioane, Nick Stiles
BRISBANE BOYS’ COLLEGE
GPS premierships: 1
Most recent: 1954 (shared)
BRISBANE Boys’ College flyhalf Carter Gordon has been snapped up by the Queensland Reds at just 17 for their rebuilding plans.
His two-year development contract is a strong signal of his natural skills and keeping one of the state’s best young flyhalf projects in Queensland.
The new GPS rugby season will provide more valuable grooming for the Queensland Schoolboys’ chief playmaker when BBC host Gregory Terrace on Saturday afternoon.
The Mooloolaba product is a tall, lean No. 10 with a slick pass to maximise the pacy thrust of BBC’s back three, Xavier Savage, Jack Bowyer and swerving Shayden Stevens.
One of Gordon’s best assets is his balance, on and off the field, because he has entry to a business course at university in his plans as well.
“The GPS competition is a lot of fun but you also know that every game is like a final because you can’t drop a game,” Gordon said.
“It’s a nice thing (to be signed by the Reds) because it doesn’t make me feel any pressure on what’s ahead.”
Last year produced a fine six-win season when a late 17-15 loss to Nudgee College ultimately cost BBC a share of their first premiership since the one-off of 1954.
The quest for a second rugby premiership has been an overblown obsession, a balanced part of healthy school life and every shade in between over the past 64 years.
“As a rugby school we were really good at rowing,” former Wallaby Roger Gould said of his 1974 finishing year when the BBC First VIII won the Head of the River.
Champion Wallabies halfback Will Genia and 2011 World Cup captain James Horwill were BBC schoolmates together.
Genia credits BBC and zealous training on his pass with coach Chris Lane for transforming him from a shy boarder from Papua New Guinea.
“I started at the school as a fat little winger,” Genia said.
“Everyone got into the GPS competition.
“BBC would get bagpiped down the hill on the way to their home games and it felt like the Super Bowl.
“The thing I enjoyed about BBC was that they did not push sport as the be-all. It was about having fun with your friends on Saturdays.”
School captain Jack Gallagher is back at lock where BBC have to fill the void left by Trevor Hosea, who has already graduated to the Australian Under-20s and the Melbourne Rebels squad.
10 OF THE BEST: Will Genia, James Horwill, Roger Gould, John Roe, Angus Cottrell, Dane Gagai, Bruce Brown, Stu Gregory, Richard Leslie, Mitchell Palm.
TOOWOOMBA GRAMMAR:
GPS premierships: 6
Most recent: 1956 (shared)
IT WILL surprise no one at the Queensland Reds that the young Hamish Stewart was a tough-tackling flanker in his early Toowoomba Grammar days before his shift to flyhalf.
When rivals came scooting for breaks down his channel, they didn’t meet a turnstile but a rattling hit and a player happy to help the forwards with a bit of ball pilfering.
Stewart, 20, is not long removed from his First XV days in 2015, when he remembers how valuable the grounding was at his old school.
“You cherish the memories, especially playing with the mates you see every day and it’s the base where it all starts,” said Stewart, now with 18 Reds caps.
Skilful lock Will Chaffey, selected in the Australian Schoolboys squad last weekend, is at the forefront of this year’s crop for the new season in the 100th year of the GPS Association.
“What you see is what you get from Toowoomba Grammar … always giving 100 per cent effort and never treating a bigger opponent as unbeatable,” Stewart said.
When Reds twins JP and Ruan Smith attended TGS some teachers could not tell them apart, and swapping of classes was part of their larrikin ways.
Never imagine that Saturday’s bye in the nine-team GPS competition is a rest day because it puts up in lights the annual rivalry against Downlands for the O’Callaghan Cup.
Two young Darling Downs products Jason Little (TGS) and Tim Horan (Downlands) duelled five times through school days for two wins apiece and a 6-6 draw.
The close mates were just 21 and sharing in the Wallabies’ first World Cup triumph just four years later as one of Australia’s finest centre pairings.
Little was a wonder, playing for Queensland at 18, a whiz at hurdling and once top-edging a hook for six off Ian Botham in country cup cricket.
The undefeated 1948 side was the springboard for prop Ian Hatherell, who played two Tests against Fiji in 1952.
10 OF THE BEST: Jason Little, Ian Hatherell, Jonah Placid, Matt Willshire, Hamish Stewart, JP Smith, Ruan Smith, Phil Potgieter, Mark Farrelly, Jordan Drew.
THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL:
GPS premierships: 10
Most recent: 2017 (joint premiers)
WHEN Tom Van der Schyff left Durban as a nine-year-old, he never imagined following in the footsteps of Wallabies Nathan Sharpe and Rob Simmons at The Southport School.
Just like that dominant duo, young lock Van der Schyff, 18, is the pillar of a new TSS pack as the Gold Coast school embarks on another season of GPS rugby.
Hosting Churchie on Saturday will be a testing start for fancied TSS, even with four boys fresh from being named in the preliminary Australian Schoolboys squad.
Van der Schyff excelled as Queensland Schoolboys captain in Sydney last week beside ginger-haired halfback Spencer Jeans, hooker Tyrell Kopua and prop Zane Nongorr.
“It was a real privilege to be captain and an honour to be among the (14) Queensland boys picked for that Australian squad,” Van der Schyff said.
“We really jelled as a Queensland squad and it’s going to be hard, in a way, to now play against those same boys who have become good friends.
“The TSS boys are all close. We grew up playing together and we’ve reaped the rewards.
“We love the close rivalries in GPS rugby and the respect it has, especially in a year like this when it’s the 100-years celebration.”
TSS has become a powerhouse in GPS rugby with six premierships this century, including the golden years of 2006-07.
Reds fullback Jono Lance and Ben Tapuai, James Slipper and Luke Morahan, all to become Wallabies, were part of the 2007 side.
Simmons shared in the 2006 premiership and remembers a team coach going on stage at TSS and motioning towards the photo of old boy Sharpe.
“He said, ‘guys like this had the dedication to go on with it’,” Simmons said.
“I thought ‘whatever’. I was just enjoying that we’d had a good year and was certainly not thinking of Wallabies.”
Now, 85 Tests and a bent nose later, Simmons knows how wise those words were.
10 OF THE BEST: Nathan Sharpe, Tom Lawton, Rob Simmons, Mat Rogers, James Slipper, Scott Higginbotham, Nathan Grey, Ben Tapuai, Luke Morahan, Wally Fullerton-Smith
IPSWICH GRAMMAR
GPS premierships: 8
Most recent: 1993 (joint premiers)
IZACK Rodda credits his crucial development at Ipswich Grammar as the springboard to becoming a Reds player at 20, and a Wallaby at just 21.
The towering lock was plucked from the small surfing town of Evans Head, in northern NSW, to spend Year 11 and 12 on a rugby scholarship which opened his eyes.
“It was massive,” he said. “I’d never even really jumped in lineouts until I went to Ipswich Grammar and I’d always worn plastic studs back home.
“Those were fun days, almost a glimpse at what being semi-professional was like, training three or four times a week and the whole school behind you when we played.
“Mum made heaps of sacrifices and the home loan got extended to get me to boarding school to help my rugby. “
Rodda’s pathway to the Australian Schoolboys in 2014 mirrors the experiences of the best from the proud school, which will again try to ruffle the bigger colleges when the GPS rugby season kicks off on Saturday in the 100th year of the GPS Association.
World Cup-winning Wallabies flanker David Wilson was a pivotal figure in the 1985 premiership side, and State of Origin coach Kevin Walters was halfback beside twin Kerrod, at inside centre, in 1984’s joint premiership.
Former Wallaby Berrick Barnes was a wicketkeeping-goalkicking all-rounder at Ipswich Grammar when the Brisbane Broncos swooped in 2004 with a contract offer.
The foot race between wing speedsters Ken Donald, the 1950s Wallaby, and 2011 Super Rugby winner Rod Davies would have been electrifying.
First XV coach Steve Nance is proud of the heritage and Ipswich Grammar punching above its weight with a small school population.
“There’s not the silver spoon upbringing of some other schools, we want to be very competitive and enjoy everything a great competition offers,” Nance said.
Sparky halfback Kalani Thomas (ankle) will miss Saturday’s opener against Brisbane Grammar, but fly half Meli Dreu, centre Jordan Carriera and prop Romeo Tanielu will be sharpened by a week with Queensland Schoolboys.
10 OF THE BEST: David Wilson, Berrick Barnes, Ken Donald, Alan Ware, Barry Wright, Izack Rodda, Rod Davies, Eric Francis, Craig Polla-Mounter, Kevin Walters
BRISBANE GRAMMAR
GPS premierships: 7
Most recent: 2012
NO SCHOOL in Australia has produced more Wallabies captains than the seven of Brisbane Grammar, from the colourful Bob McGowan in 1899 to Stephen Moore.
The school has a history as an academic powerhouse as well as one rich in sporting lore.
No one better encapsulates that than the great Tommy Lawton Sr, both a Rhodes scholar and a wonderful flyhalf who went on to play 14 Tests (1920-32). He was known as the “Loping Ghost” for his long-striding gait which sometimes appeared slow until his deceptive moves kicked in.
Rugby icon Alex Evans won premierships both as a player and as a First XV coach in a long association with the school.
The school’s director of rugby is Phil Mooney, who absorbed part of his rugby ethos from the legendary Evans.
“We make no secret of what we are about with our focus on being a top academic school and having a well-rounded sporting experience,” First XV coach Paul Warwick said.
“We’ve tried to dispel a few myths in the last few years (against the stronger schools) with our resilience and not being intimidated before you get on the field.”
Last year’s upset of Gregory Terrace was a high point and Grammar will head into this season with Queensland Schoolboys Emile Tuimavave and Dennis Waight at the forefront. Prop Alex Davies is the son of Bruce Davies, a compact, broad-chested Reds prop in his day.
“The GPS rugby system is fundamental to Queensland rugby’s success and I’m not sure Queensland rugby does enough in the schools because you can’t take it for granted,” Warwick said.
McGowan’s name is sometimes only whispered because he fell from grace after an unsuccessful plunge on Phar Lap in the 1929 Melbourne Cup which led to jail when money went missing from a trust fund.
10 OF THE BEST: Tom Lawton Sr, Stephen Moore, Dick Marks, Andy McIntyre, Cameron Lillicrap, Greg Martin, Alex Evans, Bill Ross, Chilla Wilson, Graham Noon.
No easy path: Brumbies eye NZ breakthrough, will snub ‘free pass’
The Brumbies could learn their Super Rugby finals fate before their quarter final against the Hurricanes, but they won’t be taking the easy way out if other results gift a semi final berth.
Wallabies captain fit to start for Reds
The Reds are breathing a sigh of relief, with one of their key players fit for the start of the Super Rugby Pacific finals series.