This article was published in last weekend's Rugby News finals edition

By Mark Cashman

Warringah coach Josh Holmes has come out strongly in support of his opensider Zac Barnabus saying that the Super Rugby Pacific franchises would be mad if they don’t get him into their systems.

“I thought Zac was phenomenal,” Holmes told my Rugby News colleague Jon Geddes of the Rats Tales newsletter..

“I know Super Rugby keeps saying ‘maybe he is not big enough’,  but there is no one better than him at the moment,” the coach added.

“Put him in the system and he will get to that level. Stop saying ‘he is not ready or he is not this or that’.

“He is clearly the best No.7 in the Shute Shied. Imagine if you put him in the professional environment 24/7.”

The stats certainly tell a story with Barnabas doing all his normal stuff at the breakdown (normal for Barnabas means game turning) and then putting his body on the line with 35 tackles.

In last Saturday’s Test against the Springboks critics were raving that Wallabies backrower Carlo Tizzano made 16.

Barnabas wasn’t the only contributor to the Rats defence with Wes Thomas making 25 and Charlie McKill, Chlayton Frans and Tyson Davis 15 each.

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There’s been a lot of talk about the player points system in recent months and my Shute Cast host Anthony Bergelin revealed in this week’s podcast that the influx of overseas players could be capped.

Bergelin, who gave the best explanation of the players point system I have heard a couple of weeks back on Shute Cast, says numbers that dropped into his inbox indicate that the Aussie eligible players in this year’s Shute Shield was less than 50 percent.

The influx of overseas stars has always been part of the fabric of the competition as far back as when the likes of Richard Moriarty (Wests) and Gregor Townsend (Warringah) amongst others created waves.

It’s a point of discussion at the moment but it could be part of a suite of changes that may replace the current system.

Stay tuned!

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The silence from the golden west has been wonderfully silent when Around The Traps got in contact with Northern Suburbs coach Zak Beer.

Colleague Jon Geddes reported earlier in the week that the Shoremen could lose backline stars Max Burey and Henry O’Donnell to training commitments at the Western Force and miss Saturday elimination final against Randwick.

But on Thursday afternoon nothing had been said and Beer wasn’t getting on the phone to shoot the breeze with Force coach Simon Cron, the former Norths mentor.

Their presence, like last Sunday, will add much to the Norths backline in both attack and defence.

If I was Beer I’d block ‘Crono’ until after the weekend.

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Around The Traps is hearing that new West Harbour coach Phil Blake has hit the ground running in his new job at Concord.

He’s already had a players and coaches meeting about what “his way” will mean as we head towards the start of the 2025 Shute Shield season.

I reckon Blake has a lot to work with in his squad with the likes of Albert Alcock and Hunter Hannaford the type of people that can add some sizzle to the hard edge that they already have up front.

This season is not yet over but it’s an easy production to say that West will be the big improvers of next season - but as Blake stressed the hard work for that to happen starts now.

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We’re a couple of weeks out from the Shute Shield decider and I always find that the sports betting people are a pretty good indicator of what is going to go down.

At the moment Eastern Suburbs and Randwick are on the top line of betting at $2.61 to win the comp with Northern Suburbs on the next line at $4.51.

Surprisingly Warringah are a bit further back in the betting on $9.03 to repeat their heroics of 2017.

All those odds obviously were calculated before this coming weekend played out!

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Our piece last week about the Dave Brockhoff Medal for the Shute Shield coach of the year seems to have struck a chord out there with a couple of former Wallabies getting in touch with Around The Traps.

They all said that the judging process for the award needs to have some structure over the top in coming years to give it the rigour that it needs.

I know that some SRU powerbrokers are already gathering information about the way forward with this one and that some sort of framework will sit over the judging process in the future.

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The old trophy cabinet down at Southern Districts’ clubhouse in Sylvania Waters has been collecting a few cobwebs over the past few seasons, but that may be about to change.

Souths’ third grade colts team defeated Gordon 16-10 at Chatswood Oval in the Semi Finals last Sunday and take on Sydney Uni this weekend at Camperdown in the elimination final.

Three players in the team that played last weekend have strong family connections with the old Port Hacking club of the 1970s.

Harry Braine is the grandson of David Braine, a Life Member and former first grade captain who played over 300 games for Ports including their initial first grade premiership match in 1971.

Another Nick Hull is the grandson of Geoff Coleman the former goal kicking fullback as well as Sutherland Cricket Club top grader. He was also a major contributor to the establishment of the Licensed Club overlooking Forshaw Rugby Park.

The final one of the colts trio is Hunter Goldsbrough, the grandson of Brett Goldsbrough, a long serving prop at Port Hacking who played a significant part in the amalgamation with St George to form the Rebels in 1988.

Souths played in the 2012 and 2014 Shute Shield grand finals and whilst having some successes in Lower Grade and Colts premierships major titles have been limited.

Hopefully with this influx of generational offsprings, at last, the light could be at the end of the tunnel. It’s certainly cheaper than tipping in the talent from the top.

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Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp and Kerry Chikarovski will be the special guests when the Jack Scott Cup goes on the line at Uni this weekend.

Sydney Uni will take on the Manly Marlins in the big one, but there will be a virtual smorgasbord of women’s rugby on the day with Campbelltown taking on Gordon in the division two grand final and Eastwood playing Uni in the 10s comp final.

With Yapp in the house the many Wallaroos on show for Uni will have to mind their Ps and Qs with a national team squad to be announced in the very near future.