Two tight losses midway through last year’s GPS First XV season derailed Newington’s premiership ambitions.

But Tim Rapp’s squad returns fit and healthy in 2026 and will play a different style to what we’ve seen from the Stanmore boys in recent years.

Overview with Tim Rapp: 

”We’re going to start the season with a healthy squad, which is a big thing for us because that hasn’t been the case in recent years,” Rapp told Rugby News. 

“We’ve had key players like Isaiah Sheck and Iliyaz Villamu who have had some tough injuries, so it’s great to see those boys looking really fresh and ready to go ahead of round one. 

“Our group this year is probably more rugby-union focused than previous years. A lot have been playing and training with rep rugby programs since November last year. 

“You’ve always got to be careful to manage the training loads of young kids, because that’s exactly what they are. There needs to be a good balance of school, rugby and life and I think this group has that. 

“Last year was on that got away from us. I think we definitely had the group to win the comp. 

“I’d probably nail it down to two games I think we should have won, but it just didn’t happen. 

“Some times we beat ourselves, other times we were beaten by quality opposition, but we weren’t far off, that’s for sure.”

2026 Squad: 

“We’ve probably got a stronger year 12 group this year, which is always the preference because they’ve obviously played together for a long period of time and get to finish that final year together. 

“But also physiologically, your 18-year-olds are a lot better off than the younger kids so I’m hoping we see the benefit of that this year.”

What style of rugby will we see from Newington?

“We’re going to have a fairly dominant forward pack this year, which is different to recent years when our backs have probably stolen the show,” the coach explained. 

“We’ve still got some talent in the backline, don’t get me wrong, but we’ll look to our forwards quite a bit this year. 

“The tricky part of that is how to get pay when you’re dominating upfront. In some of our trials, we’ve been dominating at scrum time but we haven’t always converted that into points. 

“We’ve still got a bit to work on there.”

Who is the team to beat? 

“To be perfectly honest with you, I actually have no idea. My common answer to anyone who asks is, “Well, you’re probably better off speaking to the kids.”

“If you asked the kids, they’d probably say Scots and I think they are right. 

“On their day, they’ll have plenty of talent in that starting XV and they’ll be coached well with Brian Smith and Marcus Blackburn returning. 

“For us, if we can stay healthy and keep our players on the field, then I think we’ll be right in the mix in a pretty tight competition.”