By MARK CASHMAN

Sydney Uni coach Rob Taylor is a man proud of the program and the players that he’s an integral part of at Camperdown so you could feel the passion in the text exchange I had with him in the hours leading up to Saturday’s 48-13 win over Manly.

“A note for today – under the points system we are playing at 15 points (one point per player),” the text read.

“Every single player in starting XV and on the bench played Colts at Uni. Good one for people who think we just import and not develop.”

The Students in the end scored eight tries to one, led 22-6 at the break and continued to get plenty of pay down the left edge through some nice work from winger Eddy King and equally good hole running by No.13 Henry Clunies-Ross.

Hooker Declan Moore continued on his try scoring ways with another double which takes his season tally to 11, none of them length of the field jobs but effective work as always to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

Taylor weighed in again in the wake of the win over the Marlins that sees the Students remain on top of the Shute Shield competition table with a five from five record.

“This whole thing about us not developing players is just a load of bullshit,” Taylor said.

“On the weekend our starting XV had all come through our Colts system for one sometimes two years and everyone on the bench bar one was in that same category.”

Taylor has a strong affiliation with Uni’s colts system having headed it up for three seasons before stepping up to the Shute Shield side.

They were pretty much unbeatable in colts in that time and he continued on that roll with Uni’s top side in 2018 and 2019 where they won back-to-back first grade titles.

In 2018 there were 21 of the match day squad on grand final day that had been Uni Colts while in 2019 there were 22 of the 23.

“At Uni we’re very fortunate with the facility and the program and therefore we make the most of it and we back our players to do the job,” Taylor added.

“It takes a while for players to click into what we are about here as they have to adjust mentally and physically to the work load.

“Even in Colts a lot of them don’t really shine until the second year (out of school) and they adapt to what we’re about.

“On a recruitment front if we feel that a little under in an area we could go and recruit say an experienced 27-year-old from overseas or around Australia but we would go for the 21-year-old who has done the training for the past three years, knows the culture and knows how we want to play.

“Our colts system is not spoken of much but the fact remains once you’ve got them on board you have got to develop them.

“In my mind it’s always a bit annoying when the facts are a bit blurred in the (rugby) public’s perception. Everyone works their arse off here and they deserve better.

“We’re providing an opportunity to get better in a program that anyone can knock on the door and be a part of.

“So rather than slagging off our program people need to provide the same sort of opportunity at their clubs.”

The facts remain Uni is not the star chamber than many feel it is – on Saturday not one of the first grade group had played Super Rugby in recent times but there was plenty of that cohesion needed in the club footy landscape.

That comes quite simply from time together at training and in games.

Skipper Jack McCalman was a big contributor as was Mitch Whiteley and Tim Clements at the back.

Manly coach Matt McGoldrick will probably look at that scoreline and think ‘were we really that far behind the home team’?

The truth is they weren’t and managed to worked their way back into the game leading into the break.

But perhaps they would have been better served by continuing to push for a try when a couple of penalty goals were taken by Harley Attwater.

Still their win over Eastern Suburbs showed that there is life at the Village Green and they will be a difficult side to negotiate as the season rolls on.

In the meantime let the debate begin about Taylor’s fortnight defence of the “Uni way”.

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY