BALLARAT continues to establish itself at the forefront of Victorian rugby circles, with new import Mike Cachia selected to contest the 2015 National Rugby Sevens Championships.
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Cachia will line up for the Melbourne Rebels after recently impressing in several stints with the Old Collegians across a number of Super Sevens regional tournaments in Geelong and Bendigo.
The 25-year-old arrived in Australia from Scotland in January, and has since taken up a teaching position at Ballarat Clarendon College.
St Patrick’s Old Collegians Ballarat Rugby Union Football Club president Luke Miller said Cachia’s state selection was a huge boost for the region.
“It’s the first time, as far as I’m aware, that anyone from Ballarat has been selected to play in a tournament like this,” Miller said.
“He’s our Sevens captain, he’s the best player on our team and, at an elite level, he sort of stands out from the rest.”
Cachia admits he didn’t know he was being looked at as a potential inclusion for the Rebels squad.
“I’ve just been playing in the tournaments beforehand (over the past few weeks) and
I didn’t even know that they were selecting from them,” he said.
“I just kept doing what I was doing once I found out.
“Everyone told me there wouldn’t be a rugby team in Ballarat before I moved over here, so I was pretty happy to find out there was one and the standard is probably higher than I thought it would be.”
Cachia has played high level district rugby in Scotland and has also represented several Queensland-based sides since moving to Australia.
He underwent fitness tests with the Rebels last Sunday, and will train once a week with the squad in the lead-up to the championships, scheduled for March.
A strong performance at the nationals could see him in line for selection in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Meanwhile, the Old Collegians’ recent success at regional level has seen it jump into the top-10 ranked Sevens sides in the state.
