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Blues finally get one back and bring one of Canterbury's most promising young locks north
By Online Editors
The Blues today announced the signing of highly promising young Canterbury lock Sam Darry.
The New Zealand Schools player and Under-20 triallist has signed on for the Blues for three years.
Darry was former captain of Christ’s College, a member of the school’s winning Maadi Cup rowing team, and Canterbury Under-19 player of the year last year.
The 2m lock, who turned 20 this week, will continue to contract to the Canterbury provincial union, but an urge to step out of his comfort zone was a key driver to his decision to move north.
“I’ve had a pretty sheltered time my whole life in Christchurch and felt it was time to learn more about myself and as a rugby player standing on my own in the real world,” said Darry.
“It was a tough decision. As a Canterbury boy, it was a strong pull to stay, but I knew deep down that I really needed to become more self-reliant.”
Darry said he was impressed with the Blues environment, their style of play and the feedback he got from coaches, players and administration.
“The Blues is a great option for me. They are a team on the rise, and I find their style of play enjoyable to watch.
“I was really impressed speaking with coaches Leon (MacDonald) and Tom (Coventry), and trainer Phil Healey who worked with Brodie Retallick in his younger days. Brodie is someone I look up to and as a tall and lanky lock, I want to model my game on his.
“The messages I got from everyone I spoke to were very consistent which has given me confidence about my decision and what I am going into.”
MacDonald said Darry is an excellent prospect for the future.
“He is a smart and driven young man. Sam is highly skilled and extremely hard-working. He has a big frame and is already known for his leadership qualities,” said MacDonald.
“Sam will learn so much from our coaching and training team, and right now, who better to learn from than Patrick Tuipulotu about how to succeed on and off the field.”
Blues CEO Andrew Hore said Darry is an important part of the Blues development programme along with the existing plans working closely with the provincial unions in the Blues region, and the first of what he expects will be several significant signings over the coming weeks.
- Blues Rugby
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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