ON A HIGH: Ryan Scott claimed nine line-outs in the first half of the Dolphins match with the Myall Coast Mudcrabs, including three taken on the Mudcrabs throw.
RUGBY UNION
Forster-Tuncurry Dolphins
NEW Dolphins Number Eight, Ryan Scott came the long way around to the Forster-Tuncurry Dolphins via Gunnedah and Newcastle, but he is wasting no time in detonating some grenades in the Lower Mid North Coast rugby union competition.
Scott was initially a Red Devil in Gunnedah, playing football from the age of seven, until he moved to Newcastle University at 18 years of age where he graduated at 21 with honours in a construction management degree. He was wading through the internet when he found a vacancy for a construction manager with Midcoast Water.
Accepted for the position, Scott was still settling into his new life when he was approached during a pre-season tournament by the Wallamba rugby union coach, Kevin Crompton, with the suggestion he join the Bulls at Nabiac.
“I could see the quality of the lad. He came to training and then we lost him to distance travelling between Forster and Nabiac.”
Scott, 23, landed at the Dorvik Steel Dolphins’ clubhouse in Tuncurry where his powerful running and lineout skill saw him soon become an indispensable Number Eight of the team’s back row while camaraderie has led to sharing an apartment with the team’s effervescent halfback, Tim Chilton. In the two months of the LMNC premiership, the Dolphins have enjoyed a rare start to the season, winning all seven games of the first round and establishing a 10-point lead over the new club, the second-placed Myall Coast Mudcrabs. It was due to Scott’s prowess in the lineout, which saw him claim nine jumps in the first half of the game against the Mudcrabs, three on the visitors’ throw, that the Dolphins’ surfeit of possession enabled their backs to run in four tries, ending Myall’s unbeaten season in a stunning 33-0 defeat. “He is an impact player. He reads the game well and is really quick for a big (102kg) man, one of our quickest. We’ve yet to see how well he defends, but as the competition gets tougher that will be the test for him.”
Dolphins’ forward coach, former NSW Country representative and 2008 and 2010 premiership winner, Shane Dean said. The Dolphins now meet the Manning River Ratz at Tuncurry next Saturday at the start of the second round run-in to the semi-finals. The Dolphins will celebrate the day with a Michael Johnson-organised fund-raising charity occasion for ‘Beyond Blue’ with raffles and a coin donation.