Pittwater Life April 2024 Issue

2024 BRAINS
TRUST: (L-r) Mark
Gerrard, Tetera
Faulkner, Josh
Holmes and Boyd
Killingworth.
News
Fresh blood, ideas fuel Rats
It’s been a huge off-season for Warringah
Rugby Club with 30 new players
– including a slew of star signings
from other clubs – joining the Rats, which
this year is being coached by a quartet of
former players that is surely the youngest
coaching group in the Shute Shield.
Josh Holmes, who led Warringah’s first
grade Colts team to the 2023 premiership,
is the new head coach. Mark Gerrard, Boyd
Killingworth and Tetera Faulkner are also
on board. All but Gerrard, a senior statesman
at just over 40 years of age, are in
their 30s and not long retired.
Youth is a recurring theme at Warringah
this year. Holmes replaces club stalwart
Mike Ruthven, who stepped aside after the
confronting 2023 season, when the club’s
two top sides finished second last, the
worst result in many years.
History will not repeat, says Holmes,
a born salesmen who led the aggressive
recruitment campaign to make the club –
which with him playing halfback won the
premiership in 2017 and made the grand
finals in 2018 and 2019 – a Shute Shield
force again.
Fresh blood and much greater depth are
reasons why Holmes is looking forward to
a successful season. “There are 25-30 Colts
players from last year who have come to
grade, and we’ve gone out and recruited
about 30 new players as well,” says Holmes.
“Our goal is to make the finals in all
grades, get into the semis and do some
damage. We think we’ve got the players to
put together a really good season, and if we
get to the finals, we have the belief that we
can push any team to win the comp.”
Warringah targeted either established
first graders or players on the verge of becoming
excellent first graders. “They’ve all
really bought into the club and are driving
standards,” says Holmes.
New players include 2023 Shute Shield
Rookie of the year Zac Barnabas, a devastating
open side flanker returning to his
junior club from arch-rival Manly.
Then there’s gun Kiwi backrower Chlayton
Frans and Lismore-raised lock Travis
Gifford (both lured from Hunter Wildfires),
New Zealand flyhalf Coby Miln, who won
the premiership last year with Randwick,
‘Throwing them with
the new guys… has
created a fresh start.’
and Eastwood’s freight train centre Komiti
Tuilagi.
“A whole bunch of the guys from last
year have returned like Ben Marr, Charlie
McKill, Wes Thomas, Esera Chee Kam, Harvey
Elms, Connor Hickey, Sam Thomson
and Tyson Davis, while Ben Woollett has
come back after a stint with the Leicester
Tigers,” says Holmes.
“Throwing them with the new guys has
created a really good environment, like a
fresh start.”
Working with Holmes is longtime Warringah
collaborator Boyd Killingworth as
defence coach. He has a big job – the Rats
had more points scored against them than
any side in the comp last year.
Mark Gerrard – club legend, former Wallaby
and experienced coach – is on board.
Gerrard has been a driving force behind
the Rats Rising Waratahs Academy, a big
reason why Warringah is connecting much
better with its rich junior player nursery.
He is joined by set-piece coach Tetera
Faulkner, who also works with the Waratahs
and unknowingly did some frontline
research into his new role last July, packing
down against the Rats for Souths, one of
just four matches Warringah won in 2023.
Holmes brings a one-in-all-in approach
to the head role and says the recruitment
drive was necessary to build depth, which
was a big issue in 2023 when a bad run
with injuries impacted the spread of talent
and experience across all grades.
“The game’s getting pretty hard: it’s
more physical and faster and it’s hard to
ask guys to back up and play 80 minutes
every week. Adding some depth to the
squad across all grades will build good culture,
build competitiveness and also give
opportunities for players to rest.”
On culture, Holmes says: “We’re one
club, we’re Warringah Rats. There’s no top
squad, there’s no bottom squad. We all
train together. If guys are doing well and
training hard, then they’re going to get an
opportunity.”
The Rats’ first match is an away clash
with Southern Districts on April 6, followed
by a testing home game against reigning
premiers Randwick at Rat Park on Saturday,
April 13.
– Martin Kelly
6 APRIL 2024
The Local Voice Since 1991
PHOTO: Martin Kelly