St John’s have put together some impressive performances in games this season defeating Dubbo College South Campus 16-14 and Delroy Campus 22-18.

In the western finals of the Andrew Ryan Cup they were successful over Canowindra 8-6, Kelso High Bathurst 24-16 and Cowra High 24-10.

In the Southern NSW semi-finals played at Cootamundra, St John’s got up 6-4 over Warilla High (the Illawarra champions) before finishing 16-all with Riverina champions Wagga High but gained a passage into the final on a countback after scoring the first try of the match.

According to coach Andy Haycock, the thing most going for St John’s will be their work as a unit.

“Most of our tries have been team tries to the outside backs,” he said.

“However all our go forward has been provided by BJ O’Connor and Dan Kilpatrick and Kurtis Crisante has been our highest try scorer.

“Backrower Bailey Jenkins is a workaholic both in attack and defence while half and captain Harry Kempston is the little general. We will also be looking for fullback Nick Duffy to make his mark.”

Haycock said the team had a great mix of all the Dubbo and district junior rugby league clubs with St John’s, South Dubbo, PCYC, Eastridge and Narromine clubs represented in the squad.

There is also a considerable representation of the Dubbo junior rugby under-13s who have been unstoppable so far this season.

The St John’s under-13s team of 2009 is attempting to emulate some of the college’s champion rugby league teams of the past.

In 1986 and 1987 a Bernard Wilson-led St John’s 15s won consecutive NSW State Catholic titles and 10 years ago the 14s won the Cochrane Cup Country Catholic Championship.

The 1999 team contained NRL players Daniel Conn and Brad Cross while the captain of the team 10 years ago Joel Rapley has a brother playing in tomorrow’s team.

St John’s coach Andy Haycock and trainer Warwick Rapley were also involved in the Cochrane Cup success a decade ago.