Oztag: Tamworth well-represented at International Tag Series

Amid the action at the International Tag Series, the small contingent from Tamworth more than held their own.

The tournament began in Coffs Harbour on Thursday and wrapped up on Sunday.

More than 15 Tamworth locals were named across five of the Indigenous Australian sides which took part, along with a smattering also selected in the Tagaroos teams.

Luke Austin, a member of the Indigenous mens 30s team which featured four of his fellow locals, was unsurprised to see so many familiar faces at the tournament.

"It was a pretty solid turnout," Austin said.

"It was a national team, so to have five in it from Tamworth shows the strength of the comp here."

A number of the Tagaroos teams and Indigenous Australian teams performed well over the weekend.

The Australian teams won the majority of the divisions held, while the Indigenous Australian women's 22s finished in second and the boy's 18s, women's 30s, and men's 40s sides came third.

While the Tagaroos dominated much of the competition, Indigenous senior mixed player and local resident, Tim Walsh, was impressed by his side's heart.

"The benchmark is always the Australian teams," Walsh said.

"They haven't got a weak link at all, whereas the Indigenous teams just sort of get shoved together ... and when we played [the Australians], it took them 15 minutes to score a point.

"We kept them scoreless for a lot longer than anyone else."

As many Tamworth players have previous experience on the representative stage, there was a generally high level of Oztag on display from the locals.

"Over the past few years, Tamworth's gone from strength to strength," Austin said.

"The numbers are always increasing, to have people representing Tamworth at that international level is always good."

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