The LMRDT was initially established in 1992 as the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Trust, in Sydney, by a group of concerned rugby enthusiasts. The group wanted to see more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people playing Rugby Union. The LMRDT Inc. was established in 1995, and we now concentrate our Rugby Union development towards schoolboys and schoolgirls. Our goal is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth to see education as paramount and staying in school as a priority.
The Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team has organized numerous overseas tours, the first to Hong Kong and China and many more after. The Indigenous national team has traveled to New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand and Namibia. We endeavor to enter our national squads every year into international competitions.
In January 2000 we sent a women's team to contest the Indigenous 7s tournament in New Zealand. In October 2001 we sent a men's team to contest a 7s tournament in Papua New Guinea, and a team represented at the Sri Lanka 7s tournament for Under 19s. LMRDT Inc each year attempts to take our National Indigenous U16s on a development tour of New Zealand prior to the ARU National U16 Championships.
Our latest major development has been the establishment of the Ella 7s in 2008. Over the past two years the Ella 7’s has become increasingly popular, and the event is beginning to be marked on the calendar by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a “must not miss” event. This year event on the first Saturday in March was the third and by far the biggest With a significant growth in female participation, nearly doubling from the previous year’s amount. There were 28 Male and 11 Female teams. Players were from all over NSW, comprised of over 100 different suburbs and towns as well as 5 states. This years Ella 7’s was a massive success with attendance nearly doubling from previous years, the combination of both time and money made the event an overall success. In 2008 we had 10 male and 3 female sides. In 2009 we had 24 male and 6 female teams. The event was covered by NITV; this is Channel 180 on FOX television.
The Ella 7s and our national Indigenous Under 16s have established themselves as our marquee events. Our goal for 2011 is to maintain these two events, with modest growth in our Ella 7s with the goal of 32 Men and 12 Female teams. The major improvement or addition to our calendar is the establishment of a national Indigenous Under 18 carnival.