Spencer Jeans: Halfback to play for the Reds on Saturday, pour beers on Sunday
QUEENSLAND Reds halfback recruit Spencer Jeans could be playing at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday and be back pouring beers at Northcliffe Surf Club on Sunday.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
QUEENSLAND Reds halfback recruit Spencer Jeans could be playing at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday and be back pouring beers at Northcliffe Surf Club by Sunday afternoon in a throwback to the glory days of amateur rugby.
The 20-year-old Gold Coast bartender has signed his first professional rugby contract to join the Reds’ inaugural Super Rugby Pacific campaign but Jeans isn’t sure he’s ready to give up his day job just yet.
Since graduating from The Southport School as an Australian Schoolboys representative in 2018, manning the bar at Northcliffe has been his first and only job.
Now Jeans will call Brad Thorn boss, joining the Reds fit and ready to fight for a place on the Queensland bench behind Wallabies incumbent Tate McDermott.
Juggling schooners and rugby balls will pose some logistic challenges but Jeans is keen to make it work.
“I’m still deciding whether to give it up,” Jeans said.
“I enjoy the surf club. They have looked after me since I started there coming on three years ago. It could be a good weekender for some pocket-money and I can move shifts to pick up more.”
Jeans will tread a well-worn path if he elects to keep up appearances at his beachside bar.
Hauling kegs around the famous Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane worked wonders for the passing and tackling of former Queensland greats Paul McLean and Tony D’Arcy respectively.
Jeans’s rugby idol is decidedly more modern in current All Blacks No.9 Aaron Smith.
Queensland has two halfbacks who can mimic Smith’s darting running game but none who could hold a candle to his bullet pass – until Jeans.
Jeans will be the first Reds halfback signing since James Tuttle in 2016 whose passing ability is his primary skill set.
“In terms of my service skills as a halfback, clearing the ball is probably one of the strengths I pride myself on,” Jeans said.
“Going into that group at the Reds, they possess a lot of great halfback skills.
“I’m excited to learn from them as well.”
A schoolboy flanker, Jeans only made the switch to scrum-half at TSS in 2016.
Since then he has studied Smith to model his game upon the world’s greatest halfback.
“In terms of a halfback, he embodies the traits of a halfback the best,” he said.
“His passing is phenomenal, good running and kicking game, he’s loud with his talk and he can defend.
“He’s the one who interprets the best true meaning of a halfback and the one I looked up to the most.”
Jeans is the seventh member of the Reds’ squad for 2022 who has Gold Coast ties. There are another four in the Elite Development squad.
REDS SNAP UP THREE TSS STUDENTS FOR DEVELEOPMENT SQUAD
THE Queensland Reds have moved to secure three rising Gold Coast rugby union stars on development contracts, including the younger brother of lock Angus Blyth.
The captain of The Southport School’s 2019 GPS Premiership-winning First XV, Zane Nonggorr, will be joined in 2022 by his 2019 vice-captain and lock Wilson Blyth, prop mate George Blake, and hisunderstudy Carsen Patu, who will graduate from TSS as a Queensland Schoolboys representative later this year.
The move is a ringing endorsement of the Gold Coast’s emerging position as a nursery for Queensland sporting excellence with The Southport School leading the charge.
Six members of the 2019 First XV squad have now signed professional contracts with the Reds or Titans with a seventh soon to be confirmed.
Blyth, 20, hoped his former teammates could bring the chemistry that led their school to the third-best attacking season (48.25ppg) in 101 years of First XV rugby to the Reds.
“It will be unreal to have some familiar faces around the scene,” he said.
“It’s good for us all to achieve this. You obviously get to know each other’s style of play.
“It’s always nice meeting new people but it’s good to have some familiar faces you’ve known for a while achieve something great.”
The contract will reunite Blyth with his older brother Angus, who earned his place among the starters in the Super Rugby AU title-winning season.
Wilson, the younger sibling by three years, has only joined his brother on the field on a handful of occasions.
Now they will train together in the senior Reds squad at Ballymore as Wilson fights for the chance to one day partner him in the Queensland second row.
“There was a bit of big brother-little brother competition growing up and we’ve always been really close,” Blyth said.
“He’s been a role model for me so I try to do what he does and follow him, but I definitely don’t want to be seen as just Angus’ brother.
“It’s obviously beneficial to have him around and I’ll enjoy training with him.
“This was definitely always a goal of mine to achieve and it’s just came about.”
QUENSLAND REDS DEVELOPMENT SQUAD 2022
Taj Annan, Flyhalf/centre (Brisbane Boys’ College)
Floyd Aubrey, Fullback (GPS / Marist College Ashgrove)
George Blake, Prop/hooker (Bond Uni / The Southport School)
Wilson Blyth, Lock (Bond Uni / The Southport School)
Lopeti Faifua, Lock/Bacrow (Wests / St Kentigern College, Auckland)
Carsen Patu, Prop (The Southport School)
Keynan Tauakipulu, Backrow (Wests / St Peter’s Lutheran College)
Country ‘homecoming’ for TSS First XV’s backrow cowboys
SATURDAY’S GPS rugby return will prove a homecoming of sorts for the country boarders who make up the beating pulse of The Southport School’s First XV forward pack.
The Southport to Toowoomba Grammar School road trip is the longest journey in the competition at 176.5 kilometres but even that is a blink of the eye for TSS forwards Hunter Dalzell (Tamworth), Harry Wells (Moree), Jock McCormack (Glenmorgan) and Xavier Smith-Power (Goondiwindi).
The second- and back-row ‘cowboys’ hail from country towns a combined 1438km from their home away from home on the Gold Coast.
The Covid-19 sporting shutdown forced the abandonment of four weeks of competition, which meant the GPS trophy would not be raised for the first time since World War II.
For Glenmorgan’s Jock McCormack, raised 431km west of TSS, the chance to play for bragging rights against old mates in Toowoomba soothed the pain of losing out on a title race.
“I’m only a couple of hours away from Toowoomba so it’s good,” he said.
“I’ve got a heap of mates from home who do go to Toowoomba, it’s kind of the main school that everyone around me usually goes to.”
Lock Hunter Dalzell said the boarders’ country connection added camaraderie into the mix when taking the field together.
“There’s definitely a bit of camaraderie in it,” said the Tamworth local, 548km from TSS.
“We’re all boarders so we all live together.
“Jock and I have been through a lot over the years.
“We all live together and annoy each other, so it’s good to play with each other.”
TSS will start as favourites against TGS.
Former Wallaby’s vision to grow TSS rugby into the future
FORMER Wallabies hooker Tai McIsaac has returned home to the Gold Coast to take over as director of rugby at The Southport School after a colourful international career rubbing shoulders with the brightest names in rugby, on the pitch and in the coaching box.
The 45-year-old gave away professional coaching only months ago after guiding Japanese giants Suntory Sungoliath to the Top 14 final as forwards and attack coach.
Working under the supervision of director of rugby, England head coach Eddie Jones, McIsaac coached former Wallabies Sean McMahon and Samu Kerevi and two-time World Player of the Year winner Beauden Barrett this season.
McIsaac said his decision to trade that for a role closer to home was easy when the role on offer was at The Southport School.
“The main thing that attracted me was I’d coached at the school before when back on holidays from Perth and Japan,” the rugby and water polo dual international said.
“I had a close relationship with Wal (Coach Mike Wallace) and AB (former director of rugby Adrian Blundell) and when I saw the opportunity to come home it was always my intention.
“The last 10 months had been really tough because I couldn’t come home due to Covid-19 and those big stints away made it tough to stay in Japan.
“It was really good timing with this job being available.”
McIsaac said he had ticked off what he wanted to achieve in professional rugby after 67 Super Rugby matches with the Reds and Western Force and a decade coaching in Japan and Australia.
“I’ve coached high level players and worked with World Cup winning coaches and players, but the ability to develop players from Under-11s and see them develop through to senior rugby is pretty rewarding,” he said.
RE.LATED LINKS
TSS, Nudgee dominate first GPS Rugby Team of the Week
“Adrian Blundell has created an impressive program over 14 years and over the course of the year I’ll look at little things I can improve on to make sure of the continued success of the program.”
The first change McIsaac plans is to standardise terminology across all teams to ease the learning curve as students progress through the program.
TSS travel to Churchie in Brisbane hoping to continue the First XV’s perfect start to the season after beating BGS 71-5 last week.
TSS FIRST XV v ACGS
1. Carsen Patu
2. Cooper McGeary
3. Massimo de Lutiis (VC)
4. Hunter Dalzell
5. Jock McCormack
6. Xavier Smith-Power
7. Rhys Radel
8. Nick Hilton
9. Fraser Cowan
10. Syris Schmidt (VC)
11. Jack Denson
12. Kaleb Ngamanu (C)
13. Blake Ruaporo
14. Blake Raymond
15. Jye Gray
Revealed: Quiet donors behind $11k Gold Coast rugby club rescue
The biggest sponsorship agreement in Coomera Crushers’ 25-year history has saved the rugby club’s senior program from possible collapse – with the family behind the donation finally ready to be unmasked.
30 UNDER 21: First grade club rugby’s best emerging talent
Young talent time: Who were the top rugby rookies aged 21 or below contesting the StoreLocal Hospital Cup first grade competition? The best of the best named here from all nine clubs.