@shane smelts
You seem to know a bit about the Auggies rugby program. It seems a pity that a fine rugby nursery (perhaps even the premier rugby nursery) in Sydney loses players to the mungo game on a regular basis. However there are countless rumours around about a connection between Auggies and the Sea Eagles (nrl) so the loss to rugby is a foregone conclusion. Your thoughts?
Sorry I haven't got back to you yet, I've been busy having lunch with Laurie Daley.
Regarding connections, google the words 'Tim Cleary' and you'll see it's not as insidious as you make out.
St Augs is not the only supplier of boys to the OTHER rugby game, over the years other schools such as Newington (often) have supplied boys (especially to Souths) and even schools such as Joeys (Tom Wright, 1st IV captain) and Riverview (Michael Fenn).
Not that many from CAS schools though....hmm.
I think the reason is location, location location.
St Augs is across the road from Lottoland and although even the Sea Eagles are only there for home games the vibe spreads across the road.
Additionally there had been for many years a large Kiwi and Pacific Islander community on the Beaches, and damn are they good at both codes.
Then the Anglo boys, a lot who have parents that played back in the day (either code) live on the Beaches too.
There a lots of fields/ovals available to play and train RL, they often share with union places such as Narrabeen and even Rat Park.
There is a LOT of sport played on the Beaches, even the local soccer club has over 16,000 members.
The last bit of the puzzle comes back to location as well - to get across Sydney to Narrabeen to train 3-4 times a week is a mega grind at the best of times, the access there pretty crappy with the single lane Wakehurst Parkway etc.
Conversely to get from the Beaches across Sydney to another club in shitty Sydney peak hour traffic means people just stay local (and get developed).
You've heard of Insular on the Peninsular?
So I can't see the leakage to league changing any time soon.
And don't get me started on AFL... the other day in the Manly Daily there was an article about some 16 year old boy (who used to play union and league) who was now a Swans Academy boy and had made some NSW team, there was a photo of the boy and he was a man-mountain and damn if I couldn't imagine him in Joeys or Scots colours (or Newington, caught snoozing New).