The Queensland Outback Barbarians rugby team has finished a respectable fourth from eight teams in the Australian Rugby Shield championships held in Adelaide.
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The team, made up of players from Townsville to Dalby and west to Longreach, was pulled together at the last minute after the withdrawal of the Northern Territory from the competition that aims to unearth new talent outside of the existing rugby strongholds of Sydney and Brisbane.
The team was coached by Terry Shields from Townsville and won two and lost two games, including an historic victory over the Queensland Country Heelers, with only one training run under their belt.
The Barbarians then lost to eventual competition finalists, NSW Country Cockatoos in what was described as a cracker of a game, with both teams firing at the start.
Captain Jack De Guingand, from JCU Cairns, had an especially strong game until he had to go off thanks to a head clash.
The final score in that game was 25-14 to the Cockatoos.
The Barbarians had a good win, 36-5 against Tasmania's Jack Jumpers before going down to Perth Gold 5-38, who were too strong in the set pieces.
Queensland country rugby advocate Boyd Curran, whose son Sam Curran scored the winning try in the Barbarians' opening game, said the performance of the Outback Barbarians and the Queensland Country Heelers in Adelaide over the weekend was a great foundation for country rugby to build on in Queensland.
"In 2023 the Santos Festival of Rugby will be held in Narrabri NSW with Queensland Country playing NSW Country as a curtain raiser to the Reds playing the Waratahs," he said.
"It is understood that Queensland Country will name a high performance squad shortly and those players will be given a strength and conditioning program for the off season to lift the performances of their representative teams."
Queensland Country committee member Murray Harley, a former Heelers player and ACT Brumbies representative, heads up the high performance department for Queensland Country and said talent identification, off-season development for players, referees and coaches, and clear pathways had been identified as areas to work on, in every area where rugby is played in the state.
"We want programs that allow players to aspire to be the next Matt Cobain or Ryan Constable, who both came through the Country pathways and represented Australia," he said.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
