New England Rugby Union's Luke Stephen described inaugural Northern NSW Premier Women's XVs Premier Competition as "a really good toe in the water" for developing the female 15-a-side game.
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Sides from New England, Central North and Mid North Coast, along with some players from the Far North Coast, gathered at Moran Oval on Sunday to grow the game by participating in a series of 15-a-side matches.
The Zones host their own competitions but with fewer numbers taking the field on game day, i.e.a 7s or 10s format.
Stephen said the Premier competition was important as representative pathways are dominated by the 15-a-side game.
"There's a lot less space a lot more role specific jobs the game so days like today [Sunday] are important where people can people can learn the rugby IQ to play the game in a match setting," he said.
"It is a really good opportunity for today for everyone to have some really enjoyable physical football.
"The more people that are required to be on-the-field in a game is just more people playing our game which is great."
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Northern NSW development officer Paddy Bowen was the driving force behind pulling together the competition.
"We have got to take our hats off to Paddy Bowen, our local development officer, as well as the development off from the coast, in putting together and working with the Zones to bring the ladies today," Stephen said.
"To have over 50 ladies from four Zones here today [Sunday] playing some footy was really great."
The New England team was represented by five of the six clubs within the Zone with Tamworth players unavailable through wet weather, timing and other factors. But Stephen said they will feature in the future.
No players in the side were experienced in the 15s format and Stephen said it was particularly beneficial for them.
"Literally introducing each other in the warm up, some really positive signs for the Zone and we look forward to building on that with these girls leading into the Country Champs in June," he said.
"I think the biggest thing is, historically none of these girls play 15-a-side footy and they get just get creamed because they are not used to it.
"To have days like today where they can just learn to play and it is not the pressures of rep football or the standard of rep football.
"This year we had 17 girls in total and we will build on that moving forward."
It was also fortunate the women had a field to play on despite the recent rainfall.
"[With] the impact of closed fields across the state impacting preparation for events and seasons, it was great to be able to play on the dry second field and a great job done by the Blues volunteers in backing up and running on Sunday after hosting a trial game the day before," Stephen said.
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