By Mark Cashman

Sad to hear that one of the real lifters in our game Barry Want passed away last weekend.

Want was a life member at the now defunct St George club as well as Southern Districts and did a number of roles in the wider game including acting as a selector for the all conquering Sydney sides of the 1990s and the Rugby World Cup winning Wallabies in 1999.

Around The Traps spoke to one of his great mates Peter Fenton earlier this week about his passing.

“He was a true selector and I vividly remember him telling me I had to go and watch this kid playing for Sydney Uni who were playing in the second division then,” Fenton said.

“It was Nick Farr-Jones, so that gives you an idea about the good eye that he had for emerging talent.”

Want played 127 games for St George, ending up at tightwad prop after some time in the back row after starting his Shute Shield career on the wing as an 18-year-old winger.

He also was one of the key movers in the formation of the Classic Wallabies.

Yes, a good man gone.

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Around The Traps has always liked the way that Stan Sport has gone about covering the Shute Shield and from what I am hearing their investment is paying dividends.

Eyeball numbers are tracking in the right direction and things step up this weekend when a game a week is taken up by one of the Nine Networks free to air channels.

It’s a complicated thing to arrange with bandwidth considerations and the network covering the Paris Olympics as well as all the other sports that come under their umbrella at the moment.

The Shute Shield for many rugby fans is a calming experience and the fanatics can zone out with the six games that the streaming service offers most weekends.

A gateway “drug” back to falling in love with the Wallabies and Super Rugby Pacific you could say!

First game out of the blocks is the Warringah v Eastwood match at Rat Park on Saturday and then the big Sunday game at Coogee Oval in Round 15 between Randwick and Warringah.

The rest of the schedule is yet to be settled on but rest assured most clubs will get some sort of look in in the free to air stakes.

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Randwick are always looking to add depth to their playing ranks with interested players from overseas, but they haven’t had too much luck with the last couple that turned up at Coogee Oval.

Fijian Drua squad flanker Motikai Murray had his first run for the club in reserve grade last weekend against Gordon and many good judges felt that would add some size and attacking skill in the Shute Shield at some stage.

Murray, a Fiji Under 20 rep, wasn’t a regular starter at the Drua and the idea was to get some quality game time under his belt by playing here in Sydney and being guided by Stephen Hoiles amongst others.

Well that all came crashing down when he broke his leg in the Colin Caird Shield game at the weekend.

At least he got a bit further than another recruit who threw his knee out putting on a pair of socks in the dressing rooms before kick-off.

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It’s not the news that the Two Blues wanted to hear with their run to the Shute Shield finals on a knife edge.

Reece Seuseu looks like being out for at least the next couple of games starting with the game against Northern Suburbs on Saturday after sustaining a lower leg high ankle in jury last weekend.

As the now departed former rugby scribe Terry Smith would say Seuseu is the straw that stirs the Two Blues attacking elixir.

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As ‘Mollie’ Meldrum would say in his pomp Do You Yourself a Favour and have a listen to Stephen Hoiles’ chat with Mark Bouris on his Straight Talk podcast series.

The theme of the chat was can Australian rugby be saved and the Randwick Shute Shield boss makes a some good points.

Hoiles chats with Bouris for close to an hour and it is very insightful and it would be a shame if he is lost to the game.

He’s headed to Los Angeles for some business stuff around his Recoverie chain and coaching next year and I wouldn’t be the only one who reckons we need people like him involved in the game dare I say to make it great again.

Straight Talk has a strong sporting vein to it with the latest one talking to James Magnussen, the Olympic swimmer and there is also one with Caitlin Foord the Matilda.

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Classic post game interview with Hunter Ward in the wake of the Manly Marlins gutsy win in the northern beaches derby last weekend on Stan Sport.

Normally we’re used to players wearing sponsors hats or getting a bit of “mother’s spit” on their rugs before the cameras roll and the questions flow.

But none of that for Ward who conducted the interview in his battered head gear with a pair of headphones over the top of the gear on the noggin.

A classic look and he even threw in a couple of “credit to the boys” through the chat.

While we’re talking about the derby it seems that classy Marlins No.10 Brendan Owen has really embraced what this derby is all about.

The South African born was super excited with the way the game panned out and led the way in post game celebrations.

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This one’s a little further north than normal but still worth supporting.

Brisbane Norths player Jordan Luke sustained a life-changing shoulder injury in June that left him with permanent loss of function in his right arm.

So to help on his way to recovery a Go Fund Me page has been set up and initially they want to raise $40,000 to cope with his loss of income, medical expenses and rehab costs.

“Jordan has always been a fighter, both on and off the field. His passion for rugby, coupled with his unyielding spirit, has made him not only a beloved member of the Norths community but also the wider Brisbane Rugby Community as well,” a family spokesman said.

It sounds like it’s not unalike what former Wallaby Rob Horne has worked his way through. Get behind it!

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My Rugby News colleague Jon Geddes had a chat with Tyson Davis for his Rats Tales newsletter this week and reports that his four and a half year injury free run is over.

Davis, Geddes says, has played every minute of every Warringah game in that time but he will be sitting on the sidelines for the next couple of weeks.

“The last time I had missed a game was in 2019,” Davis told Rats Tales. “I played all of 2020, 21, 22, 23 and half of this season.”

He sustained the injury against the Two Blues three weeks ago.

“I played the rest of the game, trained Tuesday with the hope of getting through it,” he said.

“Then I got the scans back on the Wednesday and it wasn’t as minor as we thought so I had to get two screws put in to stabilise my thumb.”

He should return in Round 16 or 17.

“I’ll be back just before the finals,” he added.