Jim, around my era (I was Kings '87 as my moniker suggests) TAS were very strong..I don't think they played in a structured competition though unfortunately and just played against whoever would avail themselves so at least now they are part of the GPS proper..
we played them in a trial game and beat them but they had a team which would have given any of the GPS 1sts a run for their money..their front row was particularly strong, all 3 of them had and still do the build of what you want for a front rower and they all played 1st grade colts in Sydney the next year..one flanker played for the Australian U17s the year before and their outside centre ended up being 13 for NSW Country a couple of years later..that's just to mention a few of the players..and that team was flanked by a couple of future Wallabies in Richard Tombs a couple of years earlier and Sam Payne a couple of years later..
I remember in 1989 when I was at uni up there one weekday afternoon going to watch a game between TAS and Ashgrove..Payne was the TAS halfback and Eales was the Ashgrove lock..standing room only..
Sorry for my slow response, KOB 1987. TAS wasn't in the comp then. 1987. Sigh. That was the year I moved back to Armidale for a period and eldest was born
. I only have two girls; eldest is my Rugby watching partner. She even paid for us to go to NZ to watch a World Cup match!
TAS has had some very good teams, but it varies because of the school's smaller numbers. Back in 2007, I recorded my reactions to my visit to watch TAS play Shore after a long gap. I was surprised to find TAS playing lower level teams. This is the post -
http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2007/06/very-sporting-day-interesting-but-also.html
I would love to see TAS test themselves against higher teams, but I think that the school made a wise decision (to the degree that it was its decision) to stay in the thirds. The 2007 post shows my first reaction to the modern GPS game, including injury risk.