Narrabri Rugby Club’s men’s squad scores huge win at Santos Festival of Rugby

Narrabri Rugby Club’s senior men’s squad is fit, firing and ready to defend the Central North Rugby Union first grade premiership in 2023.

The club hosted the Roma Echidnas in a trial match at the Santos Festival of Rugby at Dangar Park on Friday, and it scored a huge shutout victory.

The Blue Boars piled on eight tries, slotted six goals, and importantly let nothing through as they raced away to a 52-0 victory.

Narrabri Rugby Club’s first XV coach Jake Packer told The Courier that he was impressed with what he saw from his team.

“I’m very pleased,” he said.

“It was very entertaining, very fast, and it was good to watch.”

“It’s hard to go too much into how we played because we were rolling subs on and off a lot, but I thought the boys definitely started the game the way they finished last season.

“The first 10 to 15 minutes was really good, and we played some really good football.

“We looked good in attack and our defence was solid.

“You could see we were building on what we did last year, which is good.

“We’d only done two sessions of structure stuff too, going into it. Other than that, it’s mainly been fitness.

“The guys are putting in at training, and we have been getting really good numbers.”

The Blue Boars welcomed a few new and returning faces to the club in the trial match on Friday.

Two in particular impressed their new coach.

“Greg Melton was good,” Packer said of the returning Blue Boar, who was playing his first game of rugby union in about six years.

“I thought he got around quite well.

“He had some really good runs and his defence was solid too.

“He’s going to be better for the run and I really can’t wait to see what he can produce this season.

“Jacob Booby was good too,” Packer said of another returning Blue Boar.

“His stint out there was good.

“He had been out for a while and it’s always going to be a bit rusty first game back, but I thought he looked comfortable with his runs and his defence was solid.”

Packer said that he was pleased with the attitudes that his players have turned up with in the pre-season, and commended them for putting in the hard yards considering that training started six weeks earlier than usual this year to prepare for the Festival of Rugby.

He said that pre-season training was compulsory for all players from today.

Friday’s 60-minute trial match was split into thirds.

The Narrabri Blue Boars opened the scoring three minutes into the game during what was their first visit into their attacking half after inside centre Jacob Nichols made a line break down the left edge and threw a pass outside to winger, Felix Cobb-Johnson. Nichols stayed close in support and received the ball back before being tackled a metre out from the line. Fullback Jydon Hill charged into the ruck and picked up the ball off the back of a quick Nichols release and grounded for the first try of the day.

Hill scored again two minutes later when another brilliant Narrabri left edge raid led to points. A perfect Will McDonnell chip kick on halfway found Cobb-Johnson and he raced 20 metres down the left edge and passed inside to the supporting Hill who went over for his second.

Toby Knight converted both of those tries to make the score 14-0.

That became 19-0 on the 14-minute mark, with the third try coming from another attack down the left. The hosts had camped themselves on the Roma tryline in the middle of the field and their forwards were throwing everything they had at a waning defence. Halfback Tom Nolan then passed left to his flyhalf Morgan Jones, who produced a bullet cutout ball to Cobb-Johnson, and the winger went over in the corner.

Narrabri continued the attacking onslaught with a fourth try in the 18th minute when a Daniel Kahl offload close to the line put Mitch Creighton over between the sticks.

Knight then knocked over his third conversion of the day from right in front to make the score 26-0.

Kahl provided another assist on the 22-minute mark when he found himself just inside Knight down the right edge as the hosts were attacking close to the line again. The Blue Boars opted to go right and moved the ball through the hands, and Kahl found the winger who went over for the fifth try of the game.

Knight missed the conversion and the Narrabri men went into the first break ahead 31-0.

The second third lasted 17 minutes and was a back-and-forth affair.

The two sides tested each other but neither defence cracked until the final play when Hamish Moore broke the line on his attacking 22 and charged away to score. Todd Nichols slotted the conversion to put Narrabri ahead 38-0 going into the final third.

After a short break, the Blue Boars picked up where they left off in the final third with a try after just two minutes.

Nolan broke the line down the left edge, just inside his own half, and passed inside to Hill as he arrived at the 22.

McDonnell had kept up with the play with a charging run up the centre of the field and it paid off as it created a two-on-one and Hill found him with a pass inside. The skipper went over between the sticks as the score became 45-0.

The match ended 15 minutes later with another Blue Boars try when Jack Maunder charged over to score after he ran onto a Nolan pass close to the line.

Knight slotted this side’s sixth goal to make the final score 52-0.