Two former South West Rocks locals, Darren Coleman as coach for the Warringah Rats and Sam Needs their loose head prop, made history when the Rats defeated the reigning Premiers Northern Suburbs in a 30 to 25 victory at North Sydney Oval last Saturday.
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The victory awarded the club its first notable piece of silverware in its 54 year history, with the competition in its present format.
Darren Coleman has had extensive experience as a coach, working internationally in Ireland and Japan with their local competitions and was coach for Eastern Suburbs for the past two years, and last year became the coach of the NSW County Eagles in the NRC (National Rugby Championship).
Coleman hit the jackpot this year when he was appointed the head coach of the northern beaches Warringah Ruby Club (The Rats) and in his first year took the club to a grand final and won.
He is still the coach of the NSW Country Eagles with the NRC comp starting this weekend with a game in Sydney then the team travels to Fiji, Armidale, Goulburn, Gold Coast, Tamworth, Melbourne and Orange.
Needs again is part of the NRC this year with Coleman as coach with the Armidale match the closest to home.
Needs is Warringah’s top prop and he progressed from the Brumbies Colts in the ACT competition, to the Sydney based Shute Shield where he played with Eastwood and was in the 2015 winning side.
Needs travelled to Japan earlier this year playing with the Waratahs and received his first official Waratahs cap.
Along with his NSW Eagles coach Darren Coleman he was invited to join the Rats at the Warringah Club, a decision that they both made which was well rewarded with their grand final victory in their first year for the club.
The Shute Shield Competition is Australia’s premier Club Rugby competition with the grand final boasting a record crowd in excess of 16,000 to see grass roots rugby at its best and televised nationally.
