New England Director of Coaching Luke Stephen believes with the young crop of talent coming through, women's rugby in the region has never looked brighter.
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That was illustrated at the State Under-17s 7s Championships on the weekend with the North West Regional Youth Rugby girls side, of which he was co-coach, showing they can match it with the best in the state.
The side was comprised players from New England and Central North, and Stephen and coaching counterpart Anthony Barbara couldn't have been happier with they performed, making the semi-finals and taking it to some of the more-fancied Sydney clubs.
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"Anthony and I were really happy with the way they ripped in and kept turning up and playing," Stephen said.
After beating Eastwood, Gordon-Easts and Central Coast they then blew Southern Districts "off the park" to finish the first day four from four and set up a semi-final showdown with Randwick.
Stephen said they had their opportunities against the Galloping Greens but made a couple of unfortunate errors which they were punished for.
They then went down to Sydney Uni to finish fourth overall.
It was an impressive result, all the more given their "fairly limited preparation".
The first game on the Saturday was their first game together and they had only had three training sessions leading in. By contrast some of the sides they came up against had been training several times a week.
"What was encouraging is that our girls showed they are just as good as any of the other girls that are getting all the opportunities in the world," Stephen said, noting that a lot of the girls they were playing were already in the talent ID programs.
He has seen first-hand the growth of the women's game in the region, particularly the New England competition, both in terms of numbers and standard, and said the weekend's performance bodes well for that to continue.
"It's a great shot in the arm for the North West that these girls all have the ability to play senior rugby in 2021," he said.
Several of them already are, and as he added "not just playing" but among the better players in the competition.
The boys didn't figure in the finals reckoning but gave 100 per cent co-coach Peter Altona said and given their limited preparation and exposure to 7s, performed better than expected.
It was very much a weekend of learning.
Only two or three of the side had played more than a couple of games of 7s before the championships, and for most of the side all their rugby this season was 15s.
They are very different games and they only really had the one training session to try and get the vagaries bedded down.
But they were competitive and Altona is hoping a couple of players might have done enough to earn higher honours. From the weekend selectors will pick a NSW team to play in Queensland next month.
