Blue Boars extend shield streak with massive win

Narrabri Rugby Club retained the Hannaford-Southwell Shield in front of a loud and proud home crowd at Dangar Park on Saturday night after outscoring St Albert’s College 62-12.

The shield victory was Narrabri’s fifth on the trot since 2021 when they won it back off the Armidale students.

The match was played across three 25-minute thirds and the hosts scored first as Joe Baker made a break down the right edge and passed back inside to Tom Nolan, who raced away to score besides the sticks.

They never looked back and went on to outscore the visitors 10 tries to two and six conversions to one in what was a dominant performance.

Nolan ended up with a hat trick as he produced a brilliant performance in the number 10 jersey in his first game in well over a year following a knee injury, and young winger Jack Anderson starred with three tries as well.

Toby Knight slotted six of the 10 conversions as he too returned from an injury that sidelined him last year.

Premiership-winning coach Craig Gleeson is back at the helm this year and told The Courier that there was a lot to like about his side’s efforts in the annual clash, especially considering they were without some key players like Sam Spanton, Todd Nichols, Will McDonnell and Charlie Radford.

“We had quite a few out and there was eight different to our starting side from the team that started the grand final last year,” Gleeson said.

“We had quite a few young fellas in there.

“There were a few guys unavailable with injury or being away, and the guys that played really stood up and put a strong case forward for this year.

“It’s created some problems for me there moving forward, but those are good problems to have. When you show you have depth like that, it can only be a good thing for the club.

“To have blokes come in and do a really, really good job gives you a lot of confidence moving into the season.”

That depth was further highlighted as the Blue Boars fielded three men’s teams and ran out of shirts in third grade. They scored 29-26 and 39-0 wins in the lower men’s grades.

The trial match was the Blue Boars’ first grade side’s first and only game they will play before the season gets underway later this month, and their coach was pleased that his men were finally able to get back out onto the park following weeks of solid effort on the training field.

“It was fantastic to have rugby back,” Gleeson said.

“The boys have had a pretty solid pre-season. It’s obviously been a bit disjointed over the past 10 days with the rain we’ve had, so it definitely wasn’t a perfect lead-in to the game, but we had a training run on Friday night and everyone made themselves available.

“To then see all those blokes on the paddock on Saturday, I think it’s a reflection of the effort they’ve put in through the pre-season.

“It was also good to get a look at what we need to work on and what worked well for us.”

The Hannaford-Southwell Shield match is a special one for both clubs as it remembers former Blue Boar Brad Hannaford and his girlfriend Felicity Southwell, who tragically died in a car accident back in 2006.

Gleeson said that although the game was technically a trial, the Blue Boars were approaching it like a must-win match given it’s importance to the club.

“Those families mean a lot to both clubs,” he said.

“We spoke about the importance of the game beforehand. It was player-driven that we weren’t treating it as a trial, and that we did not want to lose that shield because it means a lot to our club.”

Narrabri’s premiership defence will get underway on Saturday, April 26, when they head to Quirindi to take on the Lions in round one.

They will then host their first home game a week later on Saturday, May 3, when they welcome the Gunnedah Red Devils to town on ladies’ day in round two.