Ruru to captain Spirit

Force halfback Michael Ruru will take the NRC captaincy this season, leading Perth Spirit in the 2017 competition.

Ruru, who is a Perth local, was named captain of the defending champions on Tuesday, with hooker Anaru Rangi to be his deputy.

“Obviously I’m honoured and thankful that the coaching staff have put that faith in me to be captain,” he said.

“More than that I’m just excited to be part of the Perth ‘Pigs’ for another campaign.

“When you look around the squad there are some quality leaders and anyone of them could have been captain.

“I am going to grab this opportunity with two hands and hopefully I can do the team proud.

“Having Anaru (Rangi) as vice-captain is great, what you see is what you get with him. He might not say much but his actions speak louder than words and he sets a great example.”

“The culture in the Piggies is fantastic and getting better every year. I really want to add to that and keep that going, we want to have a really open and family orientated environment.”

Spirit coach Kevin Foote said Ruru had been impressive as long as he had known him.

“I met Michael in 2014 and realised how hardworking he was,” he said.

“He was working a day job and then training for NRC and I was quite surprised how long it took him to get into a professional set up and since he’s done that he’s excelled.”

“He’s a really good leader, great father, a fantastic team man and I think he drives a very high standard for us at training and on game day. He has very high aspirations for himself and everyone around him so he will drive everyone to be the best they can be."

The NRC kicks off on September 2.