Hamish Angus is a North Harbour Rays gun © Getty Images

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Yet to earn a Super Rugby contract after years of toiling away in the Shute Shield, Sydney's Premier Rugby competition, Hamish Angus hopes the new National Rugby Championship (NRC) will provide him with the platform to move onto bigger and better things within Australian rugby.

Angus, fly-half for Warringah Rats on Sydney's Northern Beaches, has grown into one of the stars of the Shute Shield competition and believes the NRC provides players like himself a great opportunity to play a higher level of footy.

"Absolutely, I think it's a great opportunity for Shute Shield players like myself to play good footy and to play more footy at a higher level," Angus, 25, told ESPN.

"And for those who have higher aspirations of cracking into a Super 15 team, it's a great opportunity to get exposure and to play against quality players regularly. So I'm absolutely looking forward to it."

Angus couldn't hide his excitement at the thought of starting at fly-half for North Harbour Rays in their opening NRC match against Melbourne Rising in Melbourne, and of the prospect of taking on some of the rising talent in Australian rugby

"I think it's a great opportunity for our guys, particularly the format of our team being so club-based, the two-time Ken Catchpole Medal winner as Shute Shield player of the year.

"We don't have many Super Rugby players, so I think it gives us opportunities for guys like myself to play against Super 15-contracted players, I think we're excited about that prospect. Obviously it would be good to have some big-name players from the Super franchise in our team, but when it comes down to it it's just 15 on 15 and we're just looking forward to it and ripping in.

"We're really excited about going down there; it's obviously an away game for us so we get to travel. I think that's good for our team; we get to hang out together and get to know each other a little bit early in the competition.

"Obviously the Rising are more or less a Super 15-B team so they'll be full of experienced players and they'll know their structures, so we'll have to be on the money when we go down there. But the boys are really excited and we're just really excited to get the competition underway."

Hamish Angus starred for Warringah Rats in Sydney's Premier Rugby competition © Karen Watson Photography

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