The Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team has successfully hosted its annual fundraising event in Sydney on Wednesday night.
The night included a host of guests from both Rugby and the Legal Profession and former Solicitor and Wallaby, Lloyd McDermott spoke to the community about the amazing work the Lloydies team have achieved over the past 12 months.
Australian Rugby Union CEO, Bill Pulver spoke with glowing affection of the Lloydies Team, whilst acknowledging there was more to be done to expand Indigenous participation in Rugby.
“The Lloydies team worked hard to introduce a new Universities Ella Sevens tournament in 2014.
“We saw Matt Hodgson and Kurtley Beale continue to represent Australia.
“We saw two Aboriginal women receive professional full time contracts with the Australian Women’s Sevens Program, Taleena Simon – product of the Lloydies Rugby program and Tanisha Stanton who came to Rugby from netball.
”I’m told Tanisha’s idol is Cathy Freeman – and with the Rio Olympics less than 500 days away – all hope our Australian Women’s team will replicate Cathy’s gold medal winning performance.
“While we’ve made great progress, we know there’s more we can do.
“Some of the initiatives we have planned are is to launch our 2015-2016 Reconciliation Action Plan following on from our first RAP which finished at the end of last year.
“Through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy investment, the ARU will target children and schools to use Rugby to benefit Indigenous communities.”
