Rugby prodigy Lucas Ortner has become the first Australian to be accepted into the Kutztown University rugby program in the United States.
The near two-metre tall second-rower has come through the Harlequins Rugby Club in Melbourne, starting out in the under 8s and playing all his junior rugby there and into the colts.
Ortner’s massive size, strength and deceptive speed are hard to miss.
Standing at 1.95 metres and a powerful 104kg, the man mountain ploughed through club rugby at a local level and is now reaping the rewards as he continues to chase top-level rugby.
Kutztown has one of the premier college rugby programs in the country in a sport that is continually growing into a new market in the USA.
Despite the size of Kutztown in Pennsylvania sitting at just 5,000 people, the college that has captured Ortner has nearly double that number.
Ortner will be studying Business Administration in line with his rugby scholarship.
Kaizer
Roar Rookie
Lol, be nice if you could give us a heads up on such a post, spilled me laughing because I was beer... Hold on...
Kirky
Roar Rookie
Piru!! Mayyyyyt, fell off chair laughing!!
piru
Roar Rookie
He'd write them on the league pages but most of them can't read
Shop
Roar Guru
Wow Jeff, for someone who hates rugby you sure dedicate a lot of effort writing negative comments on here.
Jeff dustby
Guest
What a non story
aubgraham
Roar Rookie
Kutztown University is a member of NCAA Division II. However, the club rugby team plays in the East Conference of D1-A rugby, which is first tier. College club sports in the United States are any sports offered at a university or college in the United States that compete competitively with other universities, or colleges, but are not regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and do not have varsity status. However, college rugby, which is governed by USA Rugby (except for some Women's programs) does have quasi-varsity status in some colleges and scholarships do exist. (mainly taken from Wikipedia)
no one in particular
Roar Guru
"Kutztown has one of the premier college rugby programs in the country" Not even close. They are Div II, which is in the 3rd tier, and it's non-scholarship
Gatesy
Guest
You'd have to assume he will show some loyalty and stay in USA. is this another one that got away? Anyway, good luck to the lad - get a degree while you learn your game - it seems that NRL and Rugby and AFL should be looking at this model - with the recent trend to Universities getting involved with Rugby (Canberra, Bond, etc) could this be a way of making sure that we keep a few intellectuals in the game. American pro sports people get proper degrees and it makes a lot of sense. With the advent of professional Rugby in Australia all of a sudden you don't see a Wallabies team made up of doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers and bankers like you did pre-95. Is that a good thing?
jemainok
Guest
How is his clean out work, Defence and lineout jumping?