Shute Shield rugby: How Van Stewart went from Manly to Houston SaberCats in Major League rugby
It was a Facebook post that changed the life of northern beaches rugby player Van Stewart and sent him thousands of miles from home to play a sport he loves - for a short time at least.
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If it wasn’t for the coronavirus pandemic, Van Stewart would have been living his dream in the US for the past few months as a professional rugby player.
Thanks to a mate spotting a Facebook post looking for talent, Stewart signed with the Housten SaberCats for the 2020 Major League rugby season and headed overseas in February to join his new club.
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“A friend saw something on Facebook asking for a lock with a US passport,’’ Stewart said.
“My friend send me a Facebook link on Thursday. By Friday the player manager had replied, six days later I was flying to Houston. It was all a bit of a whirlwind.”
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Stewart, who made his Shute Shield debut last season and is now back playing for Manly in this year’s competition, joined the Houston club one game into the season and played two matches with them.
“It has all been a bit of a dream for me. I have been in love with rugby forever so to get this was like a dream come true,” he said.
“Then COVID happened and our season got cancelled and I came home.”
Stewart said his Houston SaberCats coach had confirmed they are looking to bring him back to the US to play next year when the competition hopefully resumes.
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“The competition in the states started three or four years ago,” Stewart said.
“Now rugby sevens is in the Olympics they wanted to get a pro league up and this is the result.”
The competition is contested by 12 teams from the US and one from Canada and boasts top players of the ilk of former England rugby team captain Chris Robshaw, All Black legend Ma’a Nonu and former Wallaby Digby Ione.
This weekend Stewart and his Manly Marlins teammates will take on Norths at home in round three of the Shute Shield.
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