A new addition to October's Australian Rugby Shield is tipped to lift the 2024 tournament to new heights.
The make-up of this year’s Shield has changed with Western Australia and Victoria no longer represented, however, the inclusion of an Australian Defence Rugby Union men’s side adds real edge.
Tickets to the Wallabies v All Blacks Sydney Bledisloe Test are available for purchase here.
Sergeant Brian Hudson will coach the ADRU men and has high hopes for their 2024 campaign in Caloundra.
“We’re running on a four-year World Cup cycle,” Sgt Hudson told rugby.com.au.
“We have national tournaments where all three services play multiple games and select a squad and prior to that Army and Navy have individual service competitions from which they select their best players.
“Normal process is we would travel overseas to play international defence teams from Pacific Nations but we’re trying to develop our playing squad and playing group further ahead of our home World Cup in 2027.
“Playing ARS will be very close to that standard, so we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
The men’s ADRU side is set to field familiar faces from Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra’s top competitions with a few regional players in the mixer.
They’ll open their account with a warm-up double header against Queensland Suburban on September 28 before their ARS opener against South Australia on October 2.
“Our women’s program operates a similar way but their stepping stone is a bit clearer with their access to Super Rugby Women’s and a few girls who’ve played at international level,” Hudson said.
“They’ll be at a good standard and the standard we’ll face playing NSW Country and QLD Country is pretty good too.
“I suspect we’ll be more prepared than most – we’ll be in camp from September 22 and had an earlier camp plus meetings over Teams – but we have to hold up our end of the bargain and play well.
“We’ll be disappointed if we finish lower than third this year and for us, our goal is to push ahead and be winning the ARS leading into our home World Cup in 2027.”
The ADRU women performed strongly in last year's tournament, defeating South Australia and just falling short of ACT & SNSW Kestrels to finish sixth overall with ex-Wallaroo Sarah Riordan a standout.
They face a tough challenge first up against Shield holders NSW Country Corellas before facing QLD Country Orchids and QLD Suburban Kelpies.
The Australian Rugby Shield is supported by Sunshine Coast Council and will be streamed live and exclusive via rugby.com.au and Rugby Xplorer.
