Narrabri Junior Rugby Club hosts Newport under-15s during their country road trip

Sydney-based rugby union club Newport brought its under-15s team to Narrabri for a trial game last week to wrap up its 2021 country tour.

Newport Junior Rugby Club previously took part in an annual ‘dads and sons’ trip to Fiji, however, that has been put on hold amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

That then inspired the idea for the country tour.

The city slickers played a Maitland junior side on Wednesday night which they won 15-14.

On Friday night, they took on the Narrabri Junior Rugby Club’s under-16s team and scored a 52-17 victory.

The match was contested across three 20-minute thirds.

The visitors came out firing with two quick tries before Narrabri’s Jack Smith and Ashton Smith crossed for five-pointers as Narrabri put 10 points on the scoreboard.

The score was 33-10 to the Newport boys at the end of the second third, but Narrabri came out determined to stay in the game and it reduced the deficit to 33-17 when Bernard O’Connor almost immediately scored a try and added the extras from the tee.

However, the visitors were too strong and ran in 19 more points before full time to claim a 52-17 win.

A presentation was held after the game at which coaches and officials from both clubs spoke about the tour and the game.

The Newport club spoke highly of both the Narrabri Junior Rugby Club and the entire town.

Newport captain Jesse Galluzo was named best forward by the Blue Boars coaches while Tye Jecks earned the title of best back.

Jesse told The Courier that the Newport boys enjoyed their time in Narrabri.

“We’ve loved it out here,” he said.

“[On Wednesday] we arrived here and we went out to a cotton farm and we saw how it all works,” he said.

“We then had a captain’s run (at Dangar Park) then went out for dinner.

“Then [on Thursday] we went out for a tour at CSD which was interesting and we had lunch out there.

“We then had a bit of down time then started to get ready for the game.

“We are happy with how we played tonight, I think the reason we won the game was because of how well we warmed up.

“When we got out on the field our energy levels were right up.”

Narrabri Rugby Club’s under-16s team is coached by senior squad members Clayton Pursche and Chris Watkins.

Watkins said that the trial game was enjoyable and beneficial for the side.

“I was excited when I got the phone call about the potential trip,” Watkins said.

“It soon became reality after we locked it in pretty quick.

“Both teams played really well, the Newport boys were just on another level, especially fitness-wise.

“We tried to get our boys as ready as we possibly could in the short amount of time we had.

“We have a lot of new players this year, we’ve picked up a few league players which will be beneficial for us.

“Once we get their technical side of things down they’ll be unstoppable.

“As a team we have a lot to work on but once we have nutted it all out we’ll be fit and firing for the Friday night comp.”

After the match, the Blue Boars also thanked Newport Junior Rugby Club for a $1000 donation which will go towards travel for the 2021 season.