Kiama Rugby Club gun, Jack Hobbs, has been selected in the prestigious NSW Country Cockatoos team to represent his state.

Hobbs was picked in a 39-man squad based on his performance for the Illawarra representative team back in June.

Jack Hobbs playing for the Country Cockatoos. Source Jack Hobbs

On Saturday July 13 he had his first training session with the squad and from there they will narrow the squad down to just 28. If Hobbs is to pass through this process it will be his fifth time representing NSW.

“This is my fifth time in a row. I started in 2019 and played every year since then. Once you’re in, it's a bit hard to get out,” says Hobbs. “As long as you’re playing good footy they want to keep a similar team. But there’s always good young boys coming through and I’ve been lucky.”

The Cockatoos will play for the Australian Rugby Shield in the Sunshine Coast in October and Hobbs says that the quality of play is incredibly different from local rugby.

“It's an honour to put the jersey on representing our state and I really enjoy doing it. It’s a big step up. I wouldn’t say it's professional, but it's a few steps up from playing first grade local footy. Everyone knows their job and it's a lot faster,” says Hobbs.

Hobbs has played at the Kiama Rugby Club for the last two years after moving there from the Wollongong Vikings, and he says it’s helped him grow as a player.

“They’ve got a lot of good players at Kiama. We had nine selected in the Illawarra team - the most players out of everyone. It's just good to be playing with other good players and it’s really made me step up and be a bit of a leader,” says Hobbs.

President of the Kiama Rugby Club, Mark Bryant, speaks very highly of Hobbs and the qualities he has brought to the club.

“Since he joined the club he’s been an absolute workhorse on the field and off the field. He pushes everyone and he’s a very good rugby athlete. His defence is impeccable, he's got attacking skills. He's very classy and he's hard. And there's no malice in his play, it's always clean rugby,” says Bryant.

Kiama are currently sitting at third on the Illawarra District Rugby Union ladder and have only lost one game in 2024 to the first place Shoalhaven team, but Bryant is confident they can hit back when they play again next week.

“Even though we got beaten in the first round by Shoalhaven, the first 2 tries were lucky, and we won the second half, so we have a real chance to knock them off next week,” says Bryant.

Since Hobbs joined the club in 2023 the Kiama team has improved immensely from coming seventh and eighth in 2022 and 2021 respectively.

Hobbs is also the brother of Clayton Hobbs and together they run Claytons World which has over 28 million likes on TikTok. You can find their TikTok account here.