Rachel Martin's rugby story began well before she pulled on the black and white for the first time.
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The passion for the game was ingrained in the Tamworth women's captain from an early age.
"They live and breathe rugby in my family," she joked.
She recalled many a weekend on the sidelines watching her father and brother play, and 2am wake-ups to watch the All Blacks play (her family is from New Zealand).
To now have the opportunity to play herself and be able share that with them has been "pretty cool", especially to play the same position as them (hooker).
She is only one still playing with brother Sam - a long-time fixture up front for Walcha - supposedly hanging up the boots.
"It's pretty fun to call up dad in Sydney and say how many scrums I won against the head and be the one flying the flag for the family still," she said.
With the games livestreamed, they are still able to watch when they can't get up to Tamworth, and Martin joked that she gets plenty of "sideline coaching"
She joined the Magpies after relocating from Sydney four years ago to work as a nurse in the North West Cancer Centre.
"One of the girls that I worked with told me to come down," she said.
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She was initially admittedly terrified, and joked that for the first few games she was like a headless chook running around.
Those days are a distant memory now though with the 25-year old in her second season captaining the side.
Last year she was also awarded the Bill Mullens Memorial Award for the player that best supports their team on and off the field.
On Saturday she led the Magpies to their fourth win of the season as they dare to dream of finals, the 84-5 drubbing of Armidale firming their hold on third spot.
Tegan Nicholls crossed for four tries, Aimee Watts three, and Ash Bridge and Paige Leonard doubles in what was a dominant performance.
"It was good to come back strong after a tough loss against Albies last week," Martin said.
Beaten 67-nil she said their communication was one of the big differences on Saturday.
"I think we were just communicating a lot better, getting the ball through the hands in the backline and just working better as a team," she said.
"I think last week we panicked a little bit (too). But this week we just settled it down and played our game instead of being sucked into theirs."
They also put on a lot of pressure on at the breakdown, and got good reward from that.
"Its something we've been working on a lot this season so it's good to see all that training pay off," Martin said.
They now have two weeks off with the competition breaking for the university holidays.
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