The minor premiers found themselves behind on the scoreboard at half-time against Kandos Waratahs in the major semi-final at Blackheath’s Don Bradman Oval, but they rallied after the break to post a 16-12 win.

After enduring some nervous moments on the sideline, Blue coach Oscar Thorburn was delighted to see his players prevail.

“I’m really, really stoked and proud,” he said.

“It is the first ever girls Blue grand final which is really, really awesome.”

A quirk of the league tag draw meant that Blue had not faced Kandos prior to Saturday’s grand final qualifier and Thornburn said his players were not prepared for what the Tiaratahs threw at them.

Clare Warton scored a brace for Kandos to see them put Blue – who only lost one game in the regular season – under pressure.

“To be honest they didn’t really play that good, it was just a real grinding sort of win. Kandos, we hadn’t versed them before, so I think we may have underestimated them a little bit,” he said.

“Kandos were a very good side and they did surprise us, I think we got a little bit rattled. They had a couple of girls who are big and intimidating and they just ran really hard. Even though it’s league tag, that’s still intimidating.

“They also had some fast girls, they had a lot of speed.”

Though Blue fought back in the second half, with two minutes remaining Kandos led 12-10. But when one of the Tiaratahs knocked on, it gave CSU the chance it needed.

“Our captain Jasmine Lagudi scored it. Kandos made an error and she just swooped on the ball and took off – she’s a real quick girl and left them for dead,” Thorburn said.

“I was trying to monitor my heart rate for awhile there, but it was exciting, it would’ve been a good game to watch even if it was a little bit too close for my liking.”

While Lagudi clinched the win for the Mungals, Thorburn offered special praise to Emily Warner who he labelled “our super star”.

That tag has been well earned given she scored 16 tries during their nine regular season games - including a haul of five against Lithgow Bears – and helped set up a number of others.

Blue will now sit out this Saturday and keep their fingers crossed that club-mates CSU Yellow can get the better of Kandos in the preliminary final.

But no matter who Blue meets in the decider, Thornburn can rate his first season coaching the league tag outfit a success.

“It’s been great, a lot of the girls know a lot more than I do and they’ve been pretty helpful. I’ve got one of the girls who played last year – Amanda Marks – helping me out, and Billy Dickinson who I played with in the boys team he’s put his hand up,” he said.

“Yellow had always been a strong side, and they still are strong, but we’ve definitely been the benchmark this year. A majority of them are new this year, there are probably only two or three Blue girls that were there last year. The captain Jasmine is one of them, so I’m pretty happy for her.”