Memorial Oval on Sunday.
The Cobar and District Rugby Union Football Club held a Gala Day at Ailsa Fitzsimmons Memorial Oval on Sunday to promote tackle in the women’s game which includes Sevens, Tens and Fifteens.
The Cobar women’s Rugby team, the Bactrians, have been training this season in the hopes of ultimately being able to join a Western Plains Rugby competition.
Days such as these are primarily in place to coach and familiarize any player within the Western Plains Zone interested in the new concepts being introduced into the game of Rugby Union.
The success of the day can be measured by the impact of the coaching on and the benefit derived by the players who attended, not by the indifference and absence of away teams.
With more than 20 ladies present, among them Bactrians, some of Cobar’s Rugby League Roosterettes players, some Dubbo and Bourke players and the newbies to both Union and League, ready and eager for action, Western Plains Development Officer, Sarah Pearce, organised the women into a full-on confrontational game of Sevens.
Sevens, being an expansive game, can be tough going depending on fitness but it did allow the girls to gain familiarity with the laws of the game. They adapted magnificently and played accordingly in a game of four seven-minute quarters.
To tighten up the contest, Pearce then called all the players available onto the pitch for a second thirty-minute hit out at Tens.
According to the Bactrians’ Coach, Shane Leahy, by the second game, there was some great rugby played.
“It was rewarding to see the regular trainers take what they had learnt from training to a game,” Coach Shane said.
“All in attendance today at our own gala day continued to absorb the knowledge and direction provided by Zone Development Officer (DO), Sarah Pearce and her very qualified assistant [Danielle Plummer] who was referee today.
“The girls are now very keen, from tight forward Sammy Ward to speedster Toea Wisil; they are planning on travelling to Orange in November to line up for Cobar in a Tens tournament.
“There is an amazing abundance of talent in this group, and the DO was impressed.”
There was also great camaraderie and sportsmanship shown by the players.
Based on the Coach’s comments and feedback from the spectators and players, the Gala Day was very much a resounding success!—contributed…See page 23 of this week’s edition for more photos from the day.
