New Quirindi coach Jack Parfitt has enjoyed a rugby adventure most of his players can only dream of.
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Before moving to Tamworth in early 2022, the 30-year-old had spent the better part of the previous seven years travelling the world and living the life of a professional player.
Virtually straight out of uni joining Hong Kong's national program, he played through Asia and in London and was part of Asian Championship and World Cup qualifying campaigns with the Dragons.
"I've been fortunate to do some really really cool things," the prop reflected.
From the "amazing" experience of playing in Japan to a packed stadium, to playing in Kenya at a time of political upheaval and under the vigilance of armed guards.
"[It was] During the political election and when all the politicians were getting knocked off," he said.
"We didn't want to go but anyway we went and it was one of the best things I ever did."
That was for a qualifier for the 2019 World Cup, which Hong Kong ultimately just missed out on making the final 20 teams for.
Born in Hong Kong, Parfitt lived there until he was 12. Moving over to Australia for high school, he stayed on to attend university.
But, after being offered a professional contract he returned to Hong Kong.
"The Hong Kong Rugby Union said right we want to make the next World Cup and they started up their own professional program and pretty much placed players in various teams across Asia," Parfitt said.
"I did that for a bit and sort of achieved what I wanted to achieve in Hong Kong in some aspects and so then I went across to London and played a bit of footy over there."
Unfortunately COVID cut short his time there, a bad neck injury then eventually forcing him to hang up the boots.
After following him around the world for the time he was playing professionally, wife Drusilla (Dru) - whom he met at uni - was keen to return home. And so they moved to Tamworth, which is where she is from.
Initially intending to get involved with Pirates, a former team-mate from his days playing in Hong Kong lured him to Quirindi.
"I went down just expecting to sort of flip a sausage and just help out and meet people through the rugby club," Parfitt said.
But word soon got back about his history so they approached him about getting involved with some coaching.
"I sort of stood back last year and helped out a bit. And then Ed Nankivell, who's the president down there now, offered me a coffee earlier in the year and said 'we'd love you to come back and if you want to coach I'll let you do it your way'," he said.
The Lions are one-from-three so far this season but have been in the game both of their losses for a large part of the game.
"We know what we have to do: we have to sort out that last third of the game and we'll be in a confident spot," Parfitt said.
One of the big things he spoke about was keeping their emotions in check.
"The boys really really want it and they start to veer away from the script of what we want them to do," he said.
"It's just managing to keep them on track for that full 80 minutes and not letting emotion get the better of them."
"When I talk about emotion, I mean like boys doing things that don't benefit the team or trying to go for that hero of the day move that only comes off one out of every 10 times."
Things don't get any easier on Saturday facing a Narrabri side that was last round thrashed by arch-rivals Moree. As the saying goes, beware the wounded bear - or in this case wounded Blue Boar.
"We've got to go into this game treating them with respect. They won the comp last year for a reason. They've still got a lot of those players and they know how to play footy and switch on when they need to," Parfitt said.
"[But] We've got a game plan and I think if we stick to it we'll get away with it."
