Tamworth is set to host what organisers are spruiking as the biggest women's rugby tournament in the country this Easter.
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The inaugural Tamworth Women's International Rugby Tens Tournament will showcase some of the best women's talent in the country on April 8 and 9.
The tournament is the brainchild of Bill Fitzgerald and Mick Coffey and has been several years in the making.
"We've been working on the Tamworth Women's International Rugby Tens Tournament for about three years now," Fitzgerald told media as the event was officially launched on Friday.
"We had a lot more in place and then COVID obviously hit so we put it back to this year."
He said the idea of the tournament is "to bring women's rugby into the forefront", which is he added, "where it should be".
"There are currently no women's Australian tournaments, actually in the southern hemisphere, as big as what we're planning to put on," he continued.
The Tamworth Regional Council and state government have both thrown their support behind the event, which is hoping to attract 48 teams and is expected to bring more than 2,000 people from across the state and further afield to the city.
The government are kicking in $100,000 via a grant through the Regional Events Acceleration Fund.
In making the grant announcement Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said the government are "very proud" to back the tournament, which he said is "going to be huge".
"There'll be teams coming from all over NSW and indeed Australia to come and play here for big prizemoney, $30,000 in prizemoney," Mr Anderson said.
He added: "Women's sport is going through the roof. It's commanding more tv time, it's commanding more participation, it's commanding more prizemoney, it's commanding more and more as it continues to grow and the Tamworth tens will be part of that mix."
Tamworth Mayor Russell Webb said the council is "very happy" to be another supporter.
They are providing "in excess of $30,000 in support" including funding the cost of livestreaming the tournament and in kind support such as waiving field hire charges.
"This is fantastic for Tamworth, fantastic for our economy and fantastic for the business community because they'll be the winners," Mr Webb said.
Registrations have, Fitzgerald said, been "steady" so far. They're hoping for a spike between now and when registrations close on March 17.
He said there has been "huge interest" from Sydney. They've also received registrations from teams on the coast.
A number of other teams have expressed interest but haven't signed up yet.
Fitzgerald said the 48 teams is the goal but for their first year if they can fill over half of that it will give them a good foundation for expanding the tournament into the future.
The hope is to be able to attract international teams, hence the 'international' reference in the title.
"The reason we put international in the title was so that we wouldn't have to add it next year," he explained.
The tournament will be played at the Plain Street Playing Fields, and as well as the action on the field, there will also be food trucks and marquees.
