The prop forward had the crowd in stitches as he told stories about his days with the national side and his stint with the Waratahs and Western Force in th Super Rugby competition.

This year’s Blowes Clothing Cup will kick off this Saturday and according to Roos club secretary Frank Newman, the dinner with Dunning was a good way to get the players attention turned to rugby.

“This time of year is always hard because guys have the end of cricket season and there always seems to be a lot of weddings on,” Newman said.

“But to be able to get a lot of the boys together and have a good time with Matt was a good thing.

“We were able to get him through Mark Bartimote, who had a connection to Sydney Uni through his sons Tim and Chris, and it was good for the club to get someone like Matt Dunning because it can be so hard to get players out to these kinds of events.”

Dunning spent the afternoon on the golf course with a number of club players and officials before dominating proceedings at the Roos Clubhouse at No.1 Oval.

“Players with that experience have a lot of stories to tell from their time in the game,” Newman said.

“It was a very entertaining night and now we are looking forward to the start of the season.

“We play Narromine at Narromine in round one and then we have two games at home so we really want to start our season well.”