The Cobar & District Rugby Union Club has had a long and proud history and over the past 65 years has produced some fine footballers, including an Australian Wallaby.
Cobar’s talented centre Bruce Harland toured with the Wallabies in 1962 to New Zealand to play the All Blacks.
After playing for the Country and NSW sides, Stuart Mosely was invited to the Wallaby trials in 1962.
Chris Forbes also played for Country and NSW; Greg Prince and Roger Shanahan played for Country.
Other Cobar players Justin Sampson, Simon Armitage, Doug North and Benn Wright all played for NSW Country.
And while the Camels have recently fallen on tough times and have had to cancel the remainder of their 2023 season due to a lack of available players, the club will still be going ahead and celebrating their 65th anniversary this weekend.
The event will however be a bit more low key than the club’s Golden Jubilee celebrations of June 2008 which was attended by more than 500 past and present players and their families.
The 50 Years Reunion was emceed by Cobar born Justin Sampson with special guests including the Governor of NSW Marie Bashir, ACT Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher and former Wallaby Andrew Blades.
The Cobar club was formed in 1958 with foundation members Ailsa Fitzsimmons, Norma Dunn, Joy Turvey and Chris Forbes credited with developing an interest in rugby in Cobar.
Seven-a-side games were played in the first season, 1959, and the following year Cobar played its first full scale match against Warren at Ward Oval.
Junior rugby was formed a year later.
In 1966, Cobar was beaten by Dubbo in their Far Western Zone grand final. They beat Bourke the following year and then won again in 1968 and 1969 (both times against Trangie).
In 1970, the club’s oval was opened and named in honour of Ailsa Fitzsimmons (who had died suddenly in 1963).
Cobar was beaten in the grand final that year but won it the following year.
The club’s first game under lights was played in 1972.
They lost the 1974 Western Plains Zone grand final to Walgett and were beaten again the following year by Warren.
They won their first Western Plains Zone First Grade Premiership in 1976 and their clubhouse was officially opened in 1977.
The following year, the Cobar club hosted an international rugby match between Wales and NSW Country.
It was 20 years before the club would record its second Western Plains First Grade Premiership in 1996, however they had two Third Grade premiership wins to celebrate in 1991 and 1993.
The club also had Reserve Grade wins in 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2010.
Along with Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1983, the Golden Jubilee in 2008, and a successful Rugby 10s competition in 2009, the club has hosted a number of rugby greats, including a visit from John Eales in 2010.
In 2011 the club created history with both the Camels First Grade and Reserves sides beating the Bourke Rams in pre-Louth Races matches at Bourke. (It had been 15 years since Cobar beat Bourke on their own turf.)
The club struggled during the 2014 season to field a side and were reliant on a number of rugby league players to bolster the team however the club would “not die a quiet death”.
During COVID, in a modified competition in 2020, a combined Cobar/Nyngan side made the grand final where they were beaten by Walget
