After struggling to close out tight matches in 2024, a more experienced Newington squad will kick start their 2025 GPS season at home against Riverview on Saturday May 17.

First XV coach Tim Rapp said his returning players learnt plenty from last year’s experiences and will be better for it when round one kicks off in a few days time.

Overview with Tim Rapp: 

“Most of our guys have been  focussed on their summer sports so we only got our hands on them about two weeks out from the holidays,” Newington coach Tim Rapp told Rugby News.

“We took our senior teams out to Mudgee, which we do every year, then we came back and played an organised scrimmage against Kings before Anzac Day, then we played Kings again in a whole school trial last weekend.

“As I said earlier, a lot of our boys have been focusing on other sports over recent months, so for a lot of them, it was their first hit out on a rugby field. Anyone in that situation is only going to get better week, by week but it was pleasing to see how well they performed first up.

“It’s funny being in a school environment because every season is a new one.

“But when we look back at last year, we lost a handful of games by seven points or less, so they are the type of games we want to look at winning this year with a more experienced group.”

2025 Squad: 

“We’ve got a reasonable number of returners across our first XV and second XV and it’ll be good to see what some of those boys can do with the experience of last season under their belts.

“Then we’ve got a good group of 16-year olds pushing through and some guys that played thirds last year who want to make the most of their opportunity.

“I expect that we’ll be up there and competing in both firsts and seconds this year, but as always, the key will be to keep the majority of the group on the field for the majority of the season.”

What style of rugby will we see from Newington this year? 

“We want to move the ball like we did last year. That’s a bit of a theme at Newington because we usually have a decent sized forward pack and some speed out wide,” the coach said.

“We want to maintain that style of footy.

“We’ve also had Ben Herring come in as a new Director of Rugby and he’s added a lot across all of our teams based on his past experiences as a player and a coach.

“Then obviously you have to manipulate how you play to suit the players that you’ve got on the field each week.

“This year, we’ve got some big bodies in the middle of the field, then some strike out wide with Heamasi Makasini, Callum Grantham and Bailey Roberts-Lintmeijer – guys with genuine speed.

“So we’ve got to work out how we can get the ball to those guys in space.”

What are you expecting this season? 

“I think it’ll be similar to last year in that anyone on their day can win which means the competition should be live until the final rounds,” Rapp predicted.

“If I had to pick the favourites, you look at the number of returning players and the depth schools like Joeys, Scots and Riverview have, they’re going to be hard to beat.

“But in saying that, we’re going to give it a good crack and I think we can surprise a few of the bigger schools this year.”