By Mark Cashman

YOU WOULD THINK THAT WARATAHS coach Darren Coleman would have a bit of a sleep in on a Sunday, you know breakfast in bed and all that sort of stuff. 

Not so! Around the Traps understands that the first thing that ‘DC’ does is take in highlights packages of the Shute Shield that Stan Sport produces. 

Coleman as we know loves his club footy and was at Rat Park last weekend to see Northern Suburbs take on Warringah. 

He was keeping a close eye on the return to play of James Turner and a few others but that didn’t work out as planned with “Jimmy the Jet” limping off with what looked to be another ankle problem. 

Stan Sport are expanding their coverage in coming weeks to take in Brisbane club rugby and also the club footy in WA. 

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It’s a debate that always crops up when after match discussions turn to which was the best Australian Schoolboys side of all time. 

Some say that the 1977 team that featured the three Ella brothers, Mark, Glen and Gary as well as Wally Lewis was the best. 

Others reckon that the 1981 team that was led by Steve Tuynman was the best. 

The 1981 team had a 40-year reunion recently and they do put forward a pretty good argument for being the best of all-time. 

On that tour they had 10 wins from 10 starts with 48 tries scored and only one conceded. Test wins over Ireland, Scotland and Wales. 

The touring group produced 10 Wallabies, one NFL player and a Rugby Australia CEO and the majority of the team from government high schools. Let the polite discussions begin!. 

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We had an item in last weekend’s column about the way that Ben Marr has moved almost seamlessly into the Australian Sevens side, impressing coach John Maneneti. 

Well he’s not the only Shute Shielder in that group that had a pretty good start to their time in the sevens set-up with a bronze medal in the Singapore leg of the world sevens series. 

Eastwood duo Michael Iceley and Matt Gonzalez as well as Tim Clements from Sydney Uni made significant contributions to the bronze medal performance last weekend and will be doing their stuff in Vancouver this weekend. 

The Aussies weren’t that far off playing in the gold medal game just going down to the eventual champions Fiji in the semi-final. 

The big comer in the group though is Corey Toole who tore up the John Dent Cup in Canberra last year. He has serious gas and will continue to mature playing at this level. 

We seem to have stumbled upon a pretty handy way to use the sevens system with the cream from club footy keen to have a crack at the next level showing their stuff and Manenti is the man to bring them on. 

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First we had a special lager brewed to celebrate the 100th northern beaches derby between Warringah and Manly. 

Well West Harbour are getting in on the act with Akasha brewing a cheeky lager to celebrate the second year of their sponsorship of the Pirates. 

It’s called Pirate Lagerr! (What else – and you’ve got to do the grrrrrrr bit when you say lager) and according to the tasting notes it is “crisp and cleansing” beer “with a well- balanced and refreshing bitterness”. 

The notes add: “The beer is an easy-drinking lager and takes no prisoners when it comes to quenching a thirst. Avast, matey – the golden gleam of this pirate’s treasure awaits!” 

It is available at all Pirate’s home games as well as the Akasha Online Store and Taproom. 

From what we are hearing it’s moving quite nicely and is popular with both players and supporters. 

Order now – https://akashabrewing.com.au/shop/ 

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The pandemic is sure to hit clubs at various times of the Shute Shield season and Sydney Uni head coach Sean Hedger has got his “time” out of the way early in the season. 

Hedger was forced into isolation last week and missed the game against Manly. 

Obviously not an ideal situation but the Students hit back with what was a pretty handy win over the Galloping Greens doing a lot of the stuff that Uni has done very well over the past couple of seasons. 

Their rolling maul was on point and one of the players to catch the eye was their Kiwi lock Mitch Ryan who was making his debut. 

Ryan has just moved to Sydney to continue his nursing career and had set himself up around Camperdown. 

So what does any self respecting Kiwi do when he lobs into a new city – he googles up the closest rugby club and up came Sydney Uni. That’s a good get in anyone’s language. 

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Seb Wileman came off the bench to play his 150th grade game for Warringah in last weekend’s encounter with Northern Suburbs and did some good stuff after having a couple off weeks away. 

The Rats have been central to his footy journey and he has juggled numerous cracks at Super Rugby and some modelling but the time has come to get serious about life after rugby.

Wileman has started work as an apprentice carpenter on the northern beaches and from what Around the Traps is hearing he’s a good hand to have on site. 

He’s in the starting side to take on Gordon at Chatswood Oval this weekend. 

In that same game Norths lock Declan Carroll notched his 100th game for the Shoremen and the milestone was celebrated vigorously in the winning rooms after the game. 

A bit further south another centurion Gota Wykamp ran on his 100th game for the Marlins at Keirle Park against West Harbour. 

Wykamp worked as an interpreter at the Rugby World Cup in Japan and from what I understand spent far too much time in the company of commentators Sean Maloney and Andrew Mehrtens.