Dangar Park is the home of Narrabri Rugby Club’s mighty Blue Boars, but on Saturday and Sunday the venue hosted some of the country’s best players and future stars during the 2025 Santos Festival of Rugby.
The two days of action saw the local field host seven matches between the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds, which nearly resulted in a clean sweep.
The Waratahs won the Santos Cup off the Reds with a 47-19 victory in the men’s Super Rugby Aus competition match, and they retained the Santos Cup in the women’s clash with a 34-21 comeback win.
Both of those games were played on Saturday.
There were also four sevens matches played across the two days, with the Reds taking game one on Saturday and NSW bouncing back later that afternoon before winning both games on Sunday.
The results were a 19-17 win to the Reds and then 38-7, 47-7 and 33-27 victories to NSW.
There was also an under-19s game between the two clubs to wrap up the event on Sunday afternoon, which the Waratahs won 57-17.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the Narrabri Rugby Club Pickled Porkers’ exhibition match against the Classic Wallabies, during which plenty of stars of the past showed how much they have still got it but also how much they have lost it over the years.
The Blue Boars’ president Daniel Kahl was a part of that match, which the Classic Wallabies won 43-34.
Kahl described the entire weekend as an enjoyable one and said it was pleasing to see so much high-quality rugby live at Dangar Park.
“It’s a pretty special thing to be able to host that standard of football at your home ground in a regional spot,” Kahl said.
“The rugby was awesome and the results went our way, which was good.
“The fact we’ve held the festival three times now is not lost on us, just how fortunate we are.
“A special thanks to Santos and the QRU, who did the bulk of the organising and put on a special event.
“I think the attendance showed that. There were close to 2000 people there on Saturday and there was really good attendance on Sunday as well.
“The event ran relatively seamlessly. They did a really good job.
“It was a great effort to put on a three-day event of that size.
“This year, the way it engaged the wider community with the street party on the Friday night and school visits was great for a town like Narrabri.
“There were 150 kids in the clinic with the Classic Wallabies as well.
“So many people got to engage with the festival in so many ways.”
One of the main attractions for a lot of the local Narrabri community was having three former junior Blue Boars to cheer for in Joey Fowler and Sid and Martha Harvey.
Sid and Joey both started and played 80 minutes in the NSW Waratahs’ big Super Rugby Aus victory, and Martha came off the bench to play just over half an hour for the Waratahs in the women’s match.
Kahl said that he and the entire local community were proud of those three players and their achievements, and said he thought they were providing plenty of inspiration to juniors who are hoping to one day be professional rugby players.
“We’re just so proud as a community of those three and their achievements,” Kahl said.
“It’s so special to see them get to play at that level in their hometown.
“It has a flow-on effect too. There were so many kids running around all weekend chasing their signatures. It’s great for those kids to see a pathway for themselves to get to the top.”
The 2025 Festival of Rugby may have been and gone, however, it has left a lasting legacy.
In exchange for using the Blue Boars’ clubhouse at Dangar Park as their event office for the weekend, Santos have invested in lighting upgrades for the lights over the training fields, which have already been completed.
“We have playing-standard lighting on that bottom field now,” Kahl said.
“That will be great for both seniors and juniors.
“It not only means better conditions for training, but also for the Friday night junior comp, it means we can have games going on two fields, so people can get home sooner.”
“It’s a great outcome for us.”
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