Defending champions impress during first hitout

It may be a rebuilding year for the Narrabri Blue Boars’ women’s side, but the defending CNRU 10s champs showed they will still be a force this year when they scored a 43-10 victory against St Albert’s College at Dangar Park on Saturday.

The Blue Boars have a new coach and an abundance of new players in 2025 after Mitch Creighton relocated to Newcastle after coaching the team to last year’s premiership win and all but four players hung up the boots for at least this year.

Andrew Gale has stepped into the coaching role and will be assisted by the returning Peta Cox, who has been one of the driving forces behind the side’s back-to-back premierships in 2023 and 2024.

Shona McFarland and April Smith are also back on deck, while Toni Gale returns from injury after missing the entire 2024 campaign.

Those four senior players led from the front during Saturday’s trial win and the new players also impressed.

Some of those players include former Narrabri Bluebirds league tag players Lidia McCauley, Kaitlyn Armitage and Laine McCauley, who arrived during the pre-season after the local rugby league club announced they would not be fielding teams in 2025.

Another is Blue Boars junior Claudia Penberthy, who was one of the try-scorers on Saturday, while Briana Anderson, the daughter of former Blue Boars first grade premiership-winner Kenny Anderson, has also joined the team.

Smith, McFarland, Gale, Armitage and Lidia McCauley also scored tries as the hosts outscored Albies by 33 points in their first hitout.

For coach Andrew Gale, the effort his side showed and the performance they produced could not have been any better, especially considering they only had one player on the bench, with several players away including 2024 premiership-winner Cassidy Morley.

“From the get-go, the basics we have done at training, we did out there on the paddock,” Gale said.

“From the first kick off they blew me away. It was awesome.

“Some of the league girls haven’t tackled before because they’ve been playing league tag, and they did all the things that Pete and I have been teaching them at training.

“We’ve been doing the hard yards in the pre-season with the boys, doing the sprints and the broncos, and that showed out there. It was a big plus.

“We had one sub and only two or three players subbed, and the others played the full 40 minutes. The girls all really stepped up.

“The first 10 minutes was tight, and then in the third quarter we started to fatigue a bit and started struggling a bit, but we had a talk at the last break and then bang, in the fourth quarter we put three tries on them.

“Once we got that third quarter out of the system, the girls realised how much fun they were having.

“We swapped a few players around in different positions and that worked too. We have some great combinations there.”

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 Gunnedah Red Devils to town on ladies’ day in round two.