NARRABRI High School will represent the Greater Northern region in the Country Rugby League Cup northern NSW open finals at Coffs Harbour next week after cruising through yesterday’s regional finals.
The Narrabri opens join Farrer’s under 13s and 15s at the northern finals.
Farrer 15s were unstoppable in yesterday’s finals at Tamworth Minor League Park with wins over Inverell, Peel, St Mary’s Gunnedah and Duval securing yet another regional title.
The 13s didn’t have it all their own way, with St Mary’s pushing Farrer all the way.
In the opens, Narrabri hammered McCarthy Catholic College 64-1 to kick off the day and Duval High also scored a big win against McCarthy.
But that game took its toll and Duval was not able to field a side against Narrabri and it marches on to Coffs Harbour.
“It’s disappointing we didn’t get to play that last game,” Narrabri coach Brad Graham said.
“But they were struggling at the end (against McCarthy).
“They were playing with 12 in the second half and a couple of their good players got hurt.
“They looked sharp and it would have been a good game.”
Narrabri has had a good year in all competitions and is looking forward to the trip to Coffs where it will play Newcastle/Central Coast winners All Saints Maitland first-up.
Farrer knocked both Narrabri and All Saints out of the Arrive Alive Cup by a similar margin and the two sides should be evenly matched.
“Hopefully we get no injuries from Wee Waa in the town comp,” Graham said.
“We’ll take a big squad to Coffs and hopefully our full squad.
“They’ve been going good, the boys.
“We’re really happy with them.
“We had two 15-year-olds play with us too – Ben and Jake Rumsby.
“They didn’t play much time but we thought we’d give them some experience because they are going to be the ones who lead us to future success.”
The only difficulty for Narrabri is the cost.
With all the travel this year the players are looking for ways to ease their financial burden.
“These boys have been hit each time,” Graham said.
“We’ve had to look for sponsorship and done a lot of fundraising.
“A lot of them will probably play in the baseball final too, which is at Gosford.”
If any of the three local sides can win the northern finals at Coffs, they will move on to the State final at Dubbo on August 13.