Mudgee continues to make an impact on the country rugby union scene with three of the club’s members given major roles for NSW Country Rugby Union (NSWCRU) in 2015.
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Tim Burgess, Jon Chapman and Stuart Thomas have been selected to help mentor and look after the future talent of country rugby.
Burgess has been named as coach of the NSW Country under 17s with Chapman as his manager, and Thomas will be the manager of the NSW Country under 15s.
It comes a few weeks after it was revealed Mudgee’s Scott Hatch will coach the Central West colts team with fellow Mudgee High School teachers Andrew Laurie (assistant coach) and Ivan Giammarco (manager/trainer) to be his assistants.
The newest appointments continues the golden run for Mudgee Rugby Club when it comes to the representative level.
The club hosted the junior country rugby championships in 2013 a year before the senior country rugby titles were held, which brought a glowing praise from NSWCRU executive officer Terry Woodward.
Nearly two dozen Mudgee Wombats players played for Central West in the junior teams, five more – Billy Carberry, Joel Thomas, Sam Thomas, Jai Gunton and Jack Bruton – played for NSW Country in the juniors last year with Carberry selected for NSW under 15s, and Dave Jessiman played for the Blue Bulls at the country titles when it was in Mudgee.
Burgess was approached about the NSW Country under 17s job last year when he was mentoring the Central West under 18s.
“They spoke to me back then and I thought ‘why not’ and I threw my name in the hat,” Burgess said.
“I played at the level in the juniors and seniors but never coached. I thought I would give it a crack.”
Burgess will continue to coach the Wombats colts team and there will be a few instances where he will be away.
“The under 17s calender is four to five games and there are pre-season meetings and training. There will be times where I won’t be there, mainly June, July and maybe a bit of August if they decide to do a tour or something.
“There is a bit of travelling involved but that’s what you expect from country competitions. That won’t be an issue.
“I’ve got someone who is very reliable and who is more than capable in taking over [while I’m away] and that’s Josh Cookson.”
The NSW Country team will be selected from the under 17s country championships in the middle of the year but he said there was no reason why Mudgee players can’t press their claims for selection.
“They’ve got their own selectors to make sure there is no issues. I do have a say but it’s up to the selectors,” Burgess said.
“It [me being coach and Jon Chapman being manager] does open it up for the Mudgee boys. There are a few Mudgee boys who I’ve spoken to over the last few weeks who I think have potential.”
In the meantime, Burgess is preparing for the upcoming Blowes Clothing Cup colts competition.
Last year Mudgee made the semi-finals in the colts division. It was the first time the Wombats had reach the semis in the top tier of Central West Rugby Union.
