Shute Shield: Loyal Randwick gun Ben Donaldson back from Waratahs Super Rugby bubble
He earned his first green jersey when just 10 - and slept in it for two days. So the timing couldn’t have been better for this young Waratah to be released from the Super Rugby bubble to give his beloved club a hand to make the Shute Shield finals.
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Ben Donaldson still remembers being handed his first Randwick jersey when 10 and the thrill of pulling it on his back.
The Waratah Super Rugby young gun reckons he didn’t take it off for two days he was so excited to own it.
“I have probably still have it in the cupboard at home to be honest,” Donaldson said.
“And yeah, I probably did sleep in it.”
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A graduate of Randwick’s highly successful rugby academy driven by his father Stu, Donaldson is back with the Galloping Greens after being released from the Tahs bubble.
“It was different, testing, we couldn’t do a whole heap. You could go for swims if you were on your own or with a teammate but other than that it was quite restricting but we had to do it for the competition,” he said.
“It was pretty boring. One positive to come out of it is we all were in it together. It united everyone.”
Donaldson said on release his first treat was to simply go and sit in the sun at a beachside cafe and have a cup of coffee.
The 21-year-old said he is looking forward to being part of Randwick’s final push to make the finals of the competition.
“I was in the bench for a lot of time with the Tahs so it’s really good for me to be playing more minutes,” he said.
“It’s crunch time. The boys started well. But we’ve had a few losses.
“We need to pick ourselves back up this weekend and win all of our matches in the lead-up to the final now.”
Randwick have a tough task on Saturday, pitted against competition champions Sydney University at home.