For Lucy Plowman running out for Tamworth against St Alberts last Saturday was a moment she had been waiting over 12 months for.
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That she got to lead the side out in front of the Magpies faithful was a huge, and unexpected honour.
"It's amazing being part of this club, and being able to captain the girls that I was involved with today was an amazing experience," Plowman said.
The teenager only started playing rugby four years ago after her father encouraged her to get involved in a team sport. Up until then she had "never played a sport".
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Rugby was possibly not what he had in mind. But it was what she chose and so she suited up with Calrossy in the Friday night competition.
Something that was "totally out there at the time" with girls rugby only really in it's infancy, that feeling of "doing something different" was for Plowman one of the appeals.
She "got smashed around" at the start but discovered she "really loved it" and so continued with it.
Four years down the track she is part of an exciting crop of young talent filtering into the region's senior ranks.
Only 15 last year Plowman was too young to actually play for the Magpies, but trained with them.
It was a good learning experience and only fortified her desire to lace up the boots this year.
"I was beyond keen, I could not wait," she said.
As coronavirus' iron grip saw the season suspended it looked like she might have to wait a bit longer.
But thankfully things turned around and she was able to celebrate not only her long-awaited Magpies' debut, but being part of their best-ever performance - the 38-nil win in the second game their biggest winning margin in their three years in the competition.
"The girls played extremely well for not having played with each other before," Plowman said.
Co-coach Blake Hamilton was quick post-match to praise the teenager.
"First time captain she really stepped up and was able to communicate with her team as well as point out areas that we could fix up for the second game," he said.
"That made a huge difference when you're looking at the score from the first game to the second."
This weekend will see the Magpies making their first trip up the New England highway and taking on the Armidale Blues.
Before that Plowman will pull on the black and white for the newly-formed Magpies' under-16s as they kick-off their North West Regional Youth Competition campaign with the competition getting underway on Friday.
She is also hopeful of attending the state sevens championships later in the year. While the state and country championships for 15-a-side were all cancelled amid the pandemic, the sevens tournament is still slated to go ahead in October.
