RUGBY UNION
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CONFIDENT but wary leading into last weekend’s NSW Country Women’s Championship at Tamworth, Central West coach Amanda Ferguson was always going to be on the lookout for anything that could give her side an advantage over their opponents.
She found it in the unlikeliest of places, The Nutbush - yep, the dance that everyone learnt in primary school.
In a bid to “warm up the legs” and “get the blood flowing a bit”, Ferguson and her Central West troops took to dancing as preparation in a slightly Remember The Titans-esque warm-up routine.
It worked though. Central West claimed three wins from four games to finish second and had five players picked in the NSW Country Corellas squad to boot.
“It was just one of those things, I asked [Cowra’s] Inge [Visser] if she had The Nutbush on her iPod and she said yes, so I thought why not, let’s do it to warm up the legs and get the blood flowing a bit,” Ferguson laughed.
“I’m not sure if it was that but we won that game ... and finished with three out of four wins, which isn’t bad at all.”
After the tournament, which perennial heavyweights Hunter won, Orange Emus’ Stacey Howarth and Jess Scadding were named in the Corellas squad, as was Visser and fellow Cowra gun Sheree Logan. Dubbo's Kimberley Fyfe was also named.
Visser, Fyfe, Logan and Scadding have all donned NSW Country jerseys in the past, while Howarth will make her Corellas debut in a clash with Sydney later this month, before Country tackles the Southern States Championship and the national championship later this year.
“The girls all played really well but with two new sides in the championship and so many more players for selectors to pick from having five named is fantastic,” said Ferguson.
“We knew Hunter were going to be strong, but we didn’t know much about the new sides coming into the tournament. The girls did a great job, their defence was a real highlight and it was tough. We won two of our games 5-0.”
Central West downed Central North 5-0, Illawarra 5-0 and New England 41-0 but lost to eventual champions Hunter 40-0.
