Flinders rugby club is first and foremost a place for young players to get maximum enjoyment out of rugby union participation and personal growth along the way.
Skill development is a big part of the program starting from U6 and although it is certainly the exception – it is possible for players to dream of one day representing the Wallabies.

Former U6-U12 Flinders rugby player Tate McDermott is a shining example and yesterday was selected as Vice Captain of the Wallabies squad for the World Cup! Flinders has been acknowledged as his first club in the write ups and squad announcements, and we couldn’t be prouder as a club of his achievement.

Many of you were lucky enough to meet Tate a couple of seasons back when he came down for a skills session with the players. Our two longest serving players Campbell Cooper and Tristan Jenkins from U12 were presented their end of season trophies by him in 2015 when he was part of the Australian Sevens team.

Hard work and importantly enjoying the hard efforts put into your rugby journeys may one day see more of our players go on to make higher honours. Probably more likely and equally important would be to see them continue to have involvement in rugby union as players, coaches, managers and supporters.

The World Cup is coming back to Australia in 4 years time – let’s see if we can get our kids excited about that starting from this one. I’d love to see them trying to be their Wallabies hero’s on the training field and cheering like they did at the Bledisloe social night. Mini games and highlights replays on Stan Sports is a good way to get the younger ones with shorter attention spans into the games. Point out to them players and names – especially Tate – let’s give them new heroes.

Please share the story of Tate with your kids to fill them with pride for their club. He started off his rugby career just like them on the same training paddocks.

Go Flinders!