Good Morrow all you fair citizens of Aussie rugby and whoever else swings by this page. I hope my missive finds you fit, a little fat and bursting with enthusiasm this fine Furzday. This week, with no Super or Prem or other such elevated rugby floating about that I’m at least vaguely interested in enough to publish team lists for, I’m going to jump straight to the “Around the campfires…” segment and have a look at rugby in the less seen and publicised places about the country.

But before I do, a bit of housekeeping is in order. Firstly, a reminder that this is a volunteer-writers site. And to that end, over the next couple of weeks you will likely see my name being used as a vehicle for another writer to make his debut on these pages, settle in for a period and then likely (hopefully) push on to become a regular. But I won’t steal his thunder and he can introduce himself HERE. But that said, it goes to prove our openness, willingness, diversity and all-round accommodating nature to welcome others aboard the good ship GGR. So reach out and get on it if you’re so inclined.

Secondly, as ever I recommend to you the offerings and meanderings of the other denizens of this site, notably Brissy and his chat covering the Super Rugby Final HERE, RAWFy delving into the SuperW HERE and then Yowza showing his decency, balance and commitment to fair-minded journalism HERE. Get informed.

For those interested, this week’s banner pic is from Round 10 of the South Australian rugby competition wherein the Woodville Wasps 1st grade went down against Brighton Tigers in an otherwise great day for rugby in the mud. Other results of the day for the Wasps are listed below.

Woody Wasps mixed day versus Brighton in SthAust recently

Around the campfires…

This week I’m focusing more on how various competition ladders stand in a few zones around the place, to get a feel for where things sit at roughly the halfway point of most folks seasons.

And to get things started today, out in the NSW Country Central West New Holland zone, it was grand to see Narromine Gorillas have a good day out against Dubbo Rhinos last weekend (results below). The Gorillas 1st Grade team had a dominant 31-5 victory on home turf at Narromine Rugby Club, while the 2nd Grade recorded a massive 68-0 shutout over ‘the other Dubbo mob’. Of note, the day also served as the Gorillas annual Indigenous Round as well as raising funds for the Narromine Cancer Support Group. And for the record, the Rhino’s Indigenous Round is this upcoming weekend complementing their donk-on against Mudgee Wombats.

The Gorillas took all the bananas from the Rhino’s.

With the competition now past the halfway point, it’s the Molong Magpies who are the benchmark of the New Holland collective, being undefeated and with a massive points differential, only added to the weekend before by their 64-0 thumping of the Mudgee Wombats at home in Molong – a tough fortnight for the Wombats. A second straight undefeated season for the Magpies is now looking a distinct possibility with the Narromine lads being the only side to have gotten within coo-ee of Molong this year with their 19-7 scoreline at their last encounter back in May.

NSW Country Central West at season halfway

But that’s also just the New Holland competition of Central West. The Central West zone itself is massive and has eight different zone/grade competitions running within it, based on performance level and geography. And so it’s worth a broader look across all those sub-zones / competitions to see who it topping which table across the whole zone. And to that end, the Central West RU helpfully puts together the table below every now and again. And here we can see that other Dubbo mob – Dubbo Kangaroos – heading up the Blowes competition by one win over the Orange Emu’s, the Harden Red Devils have the edge over the Boorowa Goldies on bonus points down in South West, and the Blayney Rams leading the charge in their part of the world, and undefeated themselves since they knocked over the Coolah Roos by 24-22 back in late May.

The leaders of all competitions across Central West zone.

Speaking of undefeated, over in NSW Country Central Coast Wyong zone, it’s grand to see the Terrigal Trojan’s 3rd grade showing everyone how it’s done, being at nine wins from nine outings and so 43 points and with a substantial gap between them and Avoca Beach 3rds and Ourimbah Razorback 3rds, both on six from nine and tied on 32pts each. I’m always interested to see how folks lower grades are doing because they are usually very good indicators of the overall health of a club. And to that end, Terrigal also leads the way in 2nd grade, being eight from nine and so also leading the Ressies table. So the Trojans look to be in a good place in terms of overall club health.

But in the 1st grade table, the tale being told is somewhat different with Ourimbah Razorbacks leading the way, while the Avoca Beach Sharks are only one point behind. Both premier teams are eight wins from nine starts, but the Razorbacks have nine bonus points compared to the Sharkies eight. Thus Saturday 11 July will see all eyes on Ourimbah Rugby Park 1 for their next head to head.

NSW Country Central Coast RU as of this week

And speaking of top of the table clashes, down in ACT Southern Inland competition, all eyes will be on Connelly Park in sunny Wagga this weekend where perennial competition powerhouses Wagga City, currently in first spot, and Wagga Waratahs, 2nd spot, will ‘get it on’ across four grades.

To be frank, SIRU is not currently the zone it used to be. From a zone that boasted near 14 clubs when I played in it during the 1990’s, to see its first grade competition reduced to the seven clubs currently in play is hugely disappointing. And to add to that, with Waratahs and City dominating the zone year after year, some real questions need to be asked about its long term viability. That said, the juniors programme only seems to be growing and it is what it is for now until those juniors start really coming through into seniors. But history and juniors won’t matter one whit once those two clubs, whose mutual antipathy runs deep, take the field and nudge the first kick-off on Saturday.

So even if you’re nowhere near the area, work it out and get down to Connolly Park for what’s actually a Wagga City home game, but also now a cheeky Tahs excursion. As one notable Tah said to me only last night: “What’s better than smashing a boiled lolly and a few tins in a Saturday afternoon eh??” Them’s be fighting words Davey. And to help celebrate, the weekend is being used to host the Tahs three-grade premiership reunion from 2016 wherein they knocked over City in 1st grade, Griffith in 2nds and CSU Reddies in 3rd grade for what was a pretty heady day.

ACT SIRU as of this week

Moving along, up in Queensland Country Central Highlands Rugby Union (CHRU) Premiership, the Capella Cattledogs want everyone to know that their much-anticipated Ladies Day is just around the corner, and that they’re excited to welcome the Dawson Valley Drovers to Capella for a fantastic day of rugby.

With two matches locked in, a jersey auction, live entertainment and a fully booked Ladies Day area, it is shaping up to be one of the highlights of our season with details as follows:

Speaking of Qld Country Central Highlands rugby, Otufelenite leads the way at eight wins from eight starts, with Emerald Rams a distant 2nd at four wins from eight starts.

What’s interesting about that zone though is the Agri Labour rugby club, which is a labour hire company organised team that debuted in the competition only this year, with their 1st round hit out against the Emerald Rams on 14 March being their inaugural match. It must be said, they are navigating the steep learning curve of being “newcomers” in a highly physical, established regional competition quite well. They have jagged two wins to-date, both against Capella Cattledogs, and they have pushed the competition front-runners Otufelenite as close as 39-29 earlier in June. So it’s great to see them not only as a new club, but as a novel response to the modern challenges of maintaining a mobile and irregular regional workforce.

Qld Country Central Highlands table as of this week

And speaking of Queensland, In Downs Rugby, the Gatton Black Pigs reported a full and fun day out as they retained the Kava Cup for the 2nd year running with a 40-14 win over UniSQ. However, Warwick Water Rats were just too strong for the Pigs in the B-grade fixture, skipping away early and posting a 29-0 win. In the midst of all that, the Black Sows have continued their strong start to their season with a 31-5 win over UniSQ. Shout out to Grace Schulz for being the Black Sows best on for the day!

With those results in the bag, the Queensland Country Downs Rugby zone table makes for interesting reading with Goodiwindi Emus leading way with eight wins from nine starts and so 38pts with Roma Echidnas still in-touch in second spot on seven from nine for 30pts. But the competition falls away fairly sharply from there with four teams within four points of each other, and here’s hoping UniSQ can nab at least one win before the season wraps up.

Qld Country Downs Rugby zone as it stands this week

Skipping from north to south and harkening back to the articles banner pic, Woodville Wasps and Brighton play in the South Australian Premier Grade competition, along with Souths Rugby, Old Collegian and a mish-mash of other clubs and reprobates. Their 1st grade table is looking interesting with Brighton Tigers sitting high and pretty with ten wins from ten starts and a maximum of ten bonus points as well. Their closest rivals are Old Collegians who are currently eight from ten but likewise have a full ten bonus points curtesy of ‘losing’ extras.

As for Brighton, you have to give credit where it’s due as they are arguably the most successful club in South Australia’s history, maintaining a formidable presence with 35 First Division (A Grade) Premierships since 1968. In recent times, a lot of that success is rooted in a well developed junior academy which now looks to be feeding a steady stream of local talent into the higher grades. So full balls to them.

SARU as it stands this week.

Finally this week, over in the Westralian Championship, Mundurah Pirates and Perth Irish continue to lead the way, only dropping one game each so far and on 46 and 43pts respectively. ARKS remain in-touch on 37pts, but realistically, the drop-off from there to the likes of the Dunsborough Dungbeetles and the North Coast Sharks is pretty sharp.

That said, these sort of circumstances make for quite enthralling sub plots as can be seen here when we consider that although the Dungies and the Sharkies hold identical 4–5 win-loss records, the Beetles maintains the 5th spot over the Sharks (8th) only due to points differential. And it gets better because this gap is largely due to the Sharks recently suffering a heavy 67–5 blowout defeat against the ladder-leading Mandurah Pirates, so it’s arguable that their respective table positions is not really a true show of form.

That said, the Dunsborough Dungbeetles (I just luv that name) have shown strong home form themselves, highlighted by a 43–26 victory over Curtin recently. And they have proven they can score points in bunches, such as during their massive 94–0 shutout of Curtin Community Grade earlier in the season. However, depth issues have affected their consistency on long road trips and so has driven more of their losses than otherwise (a familiar story for all country rugby clubs).

Westralian Championship Rugby as of this week

Righto, there’s a fair look at rugby around some of the lesser seen places. I hope your home team and town was somewhere in all that, or if not that you at least know someone or somewhere who was. To that end, feel free to reach out if there is a team somewhere you want me to give a shout to and I’ll see what I can rustle up – you never know, I may even go and try to get a game with them! My match fee is a club jersey, so the more obscure the better.

As ever, get on down and support your local outfit this weekend. You know it’s a fantastic way to spend the afternoon, so just do it. And these days, you will just as likely walk straight into your local clubs ladies day as the Gulargambone Galahs folks are advertising here, just to add to the smorgasbord of entertainment already on offer. That said, winter seems to have finally arrived this week in NSW at least, so make sure you pack the necessaries to take full advantage of the situation – like a decent hip flask.

Say ‘Hi’ to your mum for me.

Play hard. Run straight. Tackle brave.