Aranmore Catholic College has long held a reputation as one of Western Australia’s most prestigious rugby schools, and the school’s high quality rugby program is bearing fruit with the Girls’ Sevens team qualifying for the Sanix World Rugby Youth Tournament. Aranmore is the only Australian school competing in the prestigious event.

The Sanix Tourment sees a top school from eight individual countries fight it out for the title. Teams from Australia, South Africa, England, France and New Zealand plus three other countries are usually invited to participate.

The tournament is designed to pit school teams from across the globe against each other and crown the best school rugby team in the world in sevens for girls and 15-a-side for boys.

Aranmore have named an incredibly strong squad to travel to Japan, along with eight Alcohol. Think Again Western Force Youth Girls Sevens representatives selected to tour.

Team member Grace says the tour to Japan will be an incredible experience for the team and a great learning opportunity for the year 11 and 12 students.

“The experience will be incredible with the international travel, being away from home and playing against teams from across the world. This tour can show the girls that this can be a pathway and job if that’s the way they want it to go so we’ve been treating it very seriously and training hard at the moment” she said.

Aranmore’s rugby program has enjoyed more high profile success recently, with three former students now playing for the Western Force team.

2011 graduate Kane Koteka was the first Aranmore graduate to play for the Force in 2015 and this year is joined by Chance Peni and Curtis Rona following successful stints in rugby league.

Koteka says the school’s rugby program was instrumental in getting all three players to the professional level.

“Aranmore was a massive part of our journey for all three of us in those early days,” he said. “It’s a rugby school so that’s pretty much why all of us went there and it definitely helped us get to where we are today.”

Head of Rugby Dwayne Grace says having three players at the top level is a testament to the quality of the school’s rugby program that has been developing for years.

“Over the last 12 years we have been building up our rugby program with the aim of creating professional players,” he said. “It’s great to have three former Aranmore students playing professionally in WA.”

Read more about the school’s Specialist Rugby Program on their website.

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