Oztag: Two Northern Rangers teams progress to Oztag National Championships finals

So, when the four Rangers teams arrived at Coffs Harbour and two proceeded through to finals, Tamworth Oztag coordinator Pam Potts was thrilled.

The senior mixed side progressed through to the quarter finals where they suffered an 8-2 loss, while the 20s women made it through to the semi-finals, where they were eventually sunk by Southern Storm 6-0.

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"Everybody was really happy with the weekend and how everyone went," Potts said.

"I did expect to see the mixed and the 20s women through to the next day, based on the fact that they've always gotten through in the past.

"The 20s women are a really young side, some of them have still got three years left in that team, so the experience from this tournament will only help them moving forward."

With just four teams in attendance, down on their usual nine or 10, expectations were modest for the Rangers sides this year.

But Potts remembers the not-too-distant days of the past when the teams would travel to nationals and get "towelled up in every game", so she was thrilled to see how far each and every Ranger side has come since then.

"I'm really happy with their results based on the fact that years ago at nationals, we'd be getting towelled up in every game by 10 or 12 tries," she said.

"But now we've closed that gap."

The mixed opens side won four and lost two of their round games across the first two days, while the 20s women won two and lost four, the 30s men lost five and drew one, and the mixed opens lost four and won two.

Although the 30s men and mixed open teams did not progress, Potts said their matches were generally close and they were unlucky not to see finals.

And given some of the strong individual performances produced by some of the Rangers, Potts also hopes to see at least a couple selected to represent Australia in next year's World Cup, which is set to take place in Ireland.

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