Shute Shield veteran Stu Dunbar’s long, hard road to Aussie 7s success
Up until recently, few players in Australian rugby have had as much team success but as little individual fortune as Aussie 7s and Sydney Uni playmaker Stu Dunbar.
The 30-year old flyhalf has been a constant in the Students’ backline, winning multiple Shute Shield premierships in grade and colts since 2011.
But while his teammates, often younger and less experienced, capitalised on the Students’ team success and picked up professional contracts around him, Dunbar never seemed so lucky.
He toiled away in the Sydney Uni backline for the best part of a decade, before finally finding a home with the Aussie 7s.
And this weekend, he’ll lead the defending World Champions in a tournament at home in Sydney.
“You always hear from athletes in the back half of their career that they are able to appreciate things a lot more and I guess that’s what I’m experiencing,” Dunbar told Rugby News.
“I’m loving the opportunity to be a professional athlete and to represent my country and I guess everyone would but I think I really appreciate it because it took me so many years, toiling away and waiting for an opportunity.
“I was really lucky that I had a good support crew which allowed me to continue to chase my dreams and I’m really thankful to them because I think now I’ve finally found a place where I feel really comfortable in a team that has a pretty exciting future ahead of us.”
After growing up and playing his junior rugby in Wagga Wagga, Dunbar played first XV at Scots before joining Sydney Uni in colts.
He made his Shute Shield first grade debut as a 19-year old and won premierships in colts and second grade before cementing his spot as Uni’s first grade No.10.
But through his early and mid 20s, Dunbar watched the vast majority of players around him earn professional contracts while his phone remained silent. He even played third grade at Uni one season when several younger No.10s leapfrogged him in the club’s playmaker pecking order.
“I love playing with Sydney Uni. There’s a fantastic culture there and we had lots of team success, which was great, but I did get frustrated.
“I thought I was playing good enough to get picked up on a few occasions but others kept getting opportunities in front of me.
“The great thing about Uni is that the more you give, the more you get. The club has the resources to help you develop into a professional player if you want to put in the time.
“I had opportunities to go to other clubs, but I always thought there was no point in going to another club if I was still going to have to compete with the Sydney Uni No.10 for a professional contract anyway.
“I always thought I was better off working hard, even if it meant playing second or third grade, and fighting hard for the jersey and opportunities that I wanted.”
At 25, Dunbar spent a season playing with Verona in Italy and contemplated throwing in the towel and joining the ‘real world’.
But something about that didn’t quite sit right and he decided he wasn’t done just yet.
“I was 24 or 25 at that stage and I remember thinking when I was over there that I’d come home and give footy one last serious crack.
“From that point, I started to train and act like a professional player, even though I wasn’t one.
“I was training every day down in Cronulla with Justin Lang from Live Athletic for a full year and that was probably the turning point. I started to train and think like a professional.
“After that I had a season down at the Melbourne Rebels and got one Super cap, which was awesome, then had a season with North Harbour in the ITM Cup.
“On the back of that and some decent footy in the Shute Shield, Tim Walsh gave me a crack with the Aussie 7s and I’ve been here for three and a half years now and loved every minute of it.
Dunbar quickly found his feet in the Sevens program and was a key figure in last year’s World Series winning side.
This weekend he’ll play his first Sydney Sevens along side a number of other Shute Shield stars in their mid to late 20s.
Warringah’s Ben Marr, Southern Districts’ Nathan Lawson, West Harbour and Norths’ speedster James Turner and Uni’s Tim Clements are just a few of the current crop of Aussie 7s boys who earned their stripes in Sydney club rugby.
“The beauty of the Shute Shield is that you get to play in front of your family and friends quite often but chatting to some of the other boys that have been in the program for quite a while, this is the one weekend a year where they get to do that and you can see how excited the group is,” Dunbar said.
“We had a breakout season last year, winning the World Series and we want to back that up this year, starting this weekend in Sydney.
“We were really consistent throughout 2022 and that’s something we’re still searching for this year. The top four in the World Series also qualify automatically for the 2024 Olympics in Paris so that’s our other big focus.
“Overall, we want to win the World Series, but top four is also very important.
“It’s really competitive this year. We’ve had four tournaments so far with four different winners so it’s important to be finishing in that top four as a minimum every tournament.”
Australia face Argentina, Great Britain and Canada in the pool stages of the three-day Sydney 7s starting on Friday. Shute Shield club members can access discounted tickets through their respective clubs.