Narrabri Rugby Club’s women’s tens team continued their winning ways on Saturday when they made the road trip to Scone and returned home with five points following a 39-5 victory against the Brumbies in round 13 of the 2024 Central North Rugby Union season.
The defending champs went behind 5-0 early in the match before clicking into gear and piling on 39 unanswered points to score their eighth win in nine matches as they outscored the home side seven tries to one and two conversions to none.
The dominant victory saw the Blue Boars maintain a 13-point lead at the top of the table. They are now on 58 points, well clear of second-placed Gunnedah Red Devils (45) and the third-placed Tamworth Pirates (44), who were both winners on Saturday.
Gunnedah hosted the Moree Bulls and prevailed 31-17 in another Holly Ford-inspired win as the Blue Boars junior crossed for four of her team’s five tries, while Tamworth travelled to Barraba and picked up four points following a 15-0 win. Those results saw Barraba (38), Moree (31) and Scone (22) fall further behind the top three teams.
Just as Ford did for the Red Devils, Narrabri’s Shaine Maunder scored four tries in Scone on Saturday as the duo finished the weekend locked on 16 at the top of the leading try-scorers tally. They both overtook Blue Boars fullback Cassidy Morley, who remains on 14 after missing Narrabri’s road trip to Scone.
It was Peta Cox who scored the Blue Boars’ first try on the stroke of quarter-time to lock the score up at 5-all at the 10-minute break to cancel out Scone’s opener that they scored through Caitlyn Etheridge in the fifth minute.
Maunder scored her first try of the game three minutes into the second term after Narrabri won a penalty down the left edge on the halfway line and spread the ball to the other side of the field to her before she charged away to make the score 10-5.
That became 17-5 just three minutes later after Maunder crossed for her second try. It was another runaway after she made a brilliant one-on-one steal 10 metres inside her own half, and her skipper Bella Cruickshank converted it to put the visitors ahead by 12 points.
The Narrabri dominance continued with one minute to go in the first half as Shona McFarland scooped up the ball out of the ruck about 40 metres out from the tryline, spotted a hole in the defence and darted straight through it before going over between the sticks. Cruickshank added the extras again as Narrabri went into half-time ahead 24-5.
It took the Blue Boars two minutes to find their fifth try of the game in the second stanza and it was Cox who scored it as she powered her way over for her second after grabbing the ball out of the ruck close to the line. That made the score 29-5, which became 34-5 in the 28th minute when Maunder completed her hat-trick. It was another long-range effort as she ran 80 metres to score following some brilliant work by both Cox and Esta Kalatzis as the two forwards combined to make several charging runs deep in their own half to put the visitors on the front foot and give Maunder the opportunity to do the rest.
The final play of the game was one of the best of the day as the Blue Boars produced a brilliant set move that led to McFarland breaking the line down the left edge and finding Maunder on her outside, who charged away to score her fourth of the day and make the final score 39-5.
Narrabri have another road trip awaiting them this Saturday as they travel to Barraba to take on the Rams in round 14, while their two men’s sides both sit out with byes.
The other round 14 women’s game will see Gunnedah host Scone as the Pirates and Moree both sit out with byes.
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