Narrabri Rugby Club’s women’s sevens side opened up a Central North Rugby Union ladies’ gala day with a big win for the second weekend in a row when they scored a bonus point victory against Inverell on Saturday.
The third-placed Blue Boars beat the Highlanders 22-5 in their first game in round 11 after outscoring the second-placed side four tries to one and one conversion to none.
Martha Harvey bagged a double in the victory, while Peta Cox and skipper Toni Gale crossed for a try each and Zoe Tomlinson added two points with a conversion.
That dominant victory came after the Blue Boars won the first match at the first gala day a week earlier in round 10. They defeated Barraba Gwydir 33-0 in that contest which still stands as the largest winning margin since the competition switched to the gala day format.
But just as they did in that first gala day, the Narrabri Blue Boars went on to lose their second match of the day in round 11.
However, every player who pulled on a Blue Boars shirt could be proud of both themselves and their teammates after they went down fighting, losing 19-12 in a one-score game against first-placed Pirates in the fourth of the five matches played on the day.
Harvey and Pip Donaldson scored Narrabri’s tries in that match and Gale kicked a conversion.
Narrabri Rugby Club women’s sevens team coach Will Guest told The Courier that he was happy with his side’s performance on Saturday.
“Our girls are finding their stride very well,” he said.
“They were the most switched on for that game against Inverell than what I’ve seen all season.
“They were in the zone which was awesome to see and they really executed what we’ve been doing at training all week and what we have spoken about – the one-percenters and the ruck side of things.
“I couldn’t have been happier.
“With the second game, we just let ourselves down with a few simple errors, two they turned around and scored tries after and we lost by a try.
“But we are progressing well and there’s good belief there I feel.”
Guest said that while the gala day format was not ideal in the sense that teams’ first preferences were to play alongside their men’s sides during matchdays, it was the best way to develop interest to allow that to happen moving forward in years to come.
“I think it’s beneficial to try and market the game so we can improve for next season, to get more teams into the comp,” Guest said.
“I can see the bigger picture with that but there are sacrifices.
“Barraba-Gwydir for example played back-to-back games in Inverell which is hard, especially when the second game is against a fresh team.
“That actually caught us out against Gunnedah at Inverell. They were fresh while we were playing our second game.
“There’s those little logistical sides of things that you have to accommodate for, but hopefully it’s a short term pain for a long term gain and improves the comp.”
In the other three games played in round 11 on Saturday, Gunnedah downed Pirates 24-7 in game two, Inverell outscored Barraba-Gwydir 26-5 in game three and Gunnedah defeated Barraba-Gwydir 24-12 in the fifth and final match.
Those results saw the ladder standings remain unchanged, with Pirates first, Inverell second, Narrabri third, Gunnedah fourth and Barraba-Gwydir last.
Guest said that the Blue Boars’ sevens side had been significantly boosted by new signings Kate Brown and Peta Cox in 2021, both of whom previously played for Brumbies Women in the Super W competition before moving to Narrabri this year.
However, those two key players will be missing this weekend when Narrabri travels to Barraba to challenge both Pirates and Gunnedah, as will Natalia Smith and Gerri Cruckshank.
“That’s four of the starting seven from the weekend, but we get Anni Wenner back which will be a huge bonus,” Guest said.
“With those four out we’ll need everyone to lift to fill those gaps.
“We’ll need to have belief and we need to go out and execute what we talk about – whether that’s dominating the ruck, players running the right support lines or choosing the right options – everyone in the team’s got the ability to do it so it’s now up to them to buy into that.”
Narrabri takes on Pirates in game one from 1.20pm then meets Gunnedah in game four at 2.20pm.
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