Hunter Harley impressed with Blue Boars’ depth and defence

Narrabri Rugby Club currently occupies second place on the 2021 Central North Rugby Union first grade ladder. So far, head coach Hunter Harley has liked what he has seen.

The Blue Boars’ first XV has played four games this season across the first five rounds, three of which it won on home soil.

The side downed Quirindi 34-18 in round one, had a bye in round two then knocked off defending champions Pirates 24-17. The Blue Boars then travelled to Walcha without 13 senior players in round four and were beaten 52-10, but bounced back in style in round five on Saturday with a 65-0 win against Scone at Dangar Park to become the first CNRU first grade side to keep an opposition team scoreless this year.

Harley told The Courier that he was pleased with many aspects of the Blue Boars’ start to the campaign, highlighting their defensive class and the depth within the senior squad as two key ingredients for its early success.

“The Scone win was a really good turning point for our season I reckon,” he said.

“It was a really good squad effort and I think we are headed in the right direction.

“We’ve been trying to build squad depth because we know it takes 25 players or so to win a first grade premiership.

“We gave a lot of our squad a run on Saturday and we didn’t miss a beat when we made changes.

“Those sort of games can get scrappy quickly but our blokes stuck to their structure and scored some really good tries as a result.

“There was some really good footy played and I was really pleased.

“It was obviously nice to score so many points but I was most happy that we kept them to nil.

“We want to pride ourselves on our defence so it was nice to keep that clean sheet.

“In any football code, teams with the better defences are generally up there.

“We have enough strike power in our team that if we go deep in a game and our defence holds up we’ll score points.

“It gives us confidence when we tackle well and we’ve tackled well all season bar the Walcha game.”

Harley has also been impressed with how significantly his side was improving each week in 2021.

“Other than the Walcha game I’m actually impressed with how every week we’ve improved,” he said.

“I’m not really counting that Walcha game considering there were 13 players unavailable for both grades.

“With that aside I’ve seen a lot of improvement every week.

“The guys are really taking in what we are coaching at training.

“We are up there in second and it’d be nice to be first but premierships aren’t won in May so we just have to keep improving.”

The Blue Boars now face what is expected to be a tough run of games across the next three rounds which include this Saturday’s round six match away from home against Inverell, followed by meetings with fellow top four sides Moree (away) and Gunnedah (home) in rounds seven and eight respectively.

The Blue Boars will have to become the first team to beat the Highlanders on the Inverell side’s home turf if the Narrabri men are to bring home the points this Saturday.

Inverell has won both of its home games this season, claiming a major scalp in round two when it downed Walcha 17-14 before easing past last-placed Scone 55-22 in round four.

The Highlanders are currently ranked fifth following three wins and two losses in 2021 and Harley said he knew how dangerous they were at home.

“At home they’ll be extremely tough,” Harley said.

“They probably don’t travel awesomely well but at home they are dangerous.

“They’ve been a team for the past three or four years that can beat anyone on their day so if we take them lightly we’ll come home disappointed.

“We can’t be complacent.”

The only change Harley is expected to make from his round five-winning team for Saturday’s trip to Inverell is replacing Will McDonnell (unavailable) with Jacob Booby, however Booby must prove his fitness before Saturday after suffering a back injury against Walcha in round four.

Before the first grade game kicks off on Saturday, the Blue Boars and Highlanders will also meet in women’s sevens and second grade fixtures at Inverell’s Rugby Park.