Sione Hopoate, son of former NRL bad boy, John, joins Shute Shield side Eastwood after code switch

The son of former Manly and Tigers winger, John Hopoate, Sione joined Eastwood off the back of some strong reserve grade rugby league form over the past two years.

He scored six tries in 11 games for the North Sydney Bears in 2021, before moving to Queensland and earning a regular spot on the wing for Wynnum Manly last season.

Unable to crack into the Broncos squad, or earn a contract with the Dolphins, Hopoate was released by Wynnum, allowing for his code switch and a return to Sydney.

“He came to us pretty late in the piece,” Eastwood coach Ben Batger told CODE Sports.

“It was around Christmas and one of our old lower graders sent me a message and said, ‘Hoppa’s my best mate, these are his highlights, we should get him to the club’.

“From there we got in contact with various people and just made it happen.”

After making the move to the 15-man game, Hopoate did some training with the Waratahs over the summer. He was named in the Tahs squad that played West Harbour and the Two Blues in a preseason trial at Concord Oval, but broke his hand in a New South Wales A game, and was out of action for an extended period.

“We actually haven’t seen him much,” Batger said. “He played last week off the back of just two training sessions.

“What I have seen of him, he’s a talented athlete, now we just need to turn him into a talented rugby player too.”

Hopoate’s Shute Shield debut was a miserably rainy affair against Eastern Suburbs at Woollahra Oval in round one last weekend. He had a quiet game on the right wing, but showed a few nice touches.

The 24-year-old ran powerfully to get the Woods to within 10 metres of the tryline in the build-up to their first try, and forced a knock-on later in the first half with some imposing defence.

In a wild final few minutes, Eastwood looked like they’d stolen the game with a 76th minute converted try to take a 24-23 lead.

Easts hit back with less than a minute left on the clock though, after flyhalf Jack Bowen threw a beautiful long pass for Jack Mossman to score in Hopoate’s corner.

“We’ll just have to get him a bit more ball,” Batger said of Hopoate’s debut. “The game on the weekend was very wet, and it wasn’t conducive to a winger’s game, but he made a positive touch with every involvement.

“I’m pretty happy with him to start with.”

Hopoate will play his second Shute Shield match against Manly at TG Millner Field this Saturday as Eastwood’s connection to rugby league continues.

Woods and Waratahs flyhalf Tane Edmed is the son of Balmain Tigers front-row legend Steve.

Try-scoring winger John Grant played in Eastwood’s history-making 2011 Shute Shield-winning team before switching codes to play for his uncle James’ old side the Tigers in 2012.

Club legend Brett Papworth represented the Wallabies and played rugby league for the Roosters.

Backrower Ratu Tuisese played reserve grade and under 20s for Penrith alongside Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Spencer Leniu before joining the Woods in 2020.

Man-mountain Fabian Goodall got his footy start with Wentworthville – and played three rugby league Tests for Fiji – before terrorising opposition wingers in the Shute Shield.

Meanwhile, Samoa’s rugby league coach, Matt Parish, also had a decent stint at Eastwood in the 1980s.