The Parkes Boars came for fun but left with the winner's trophy at the inaugural Beach to Bush rugby sevens competition, hosted by the Dubbo Rhinos last weekend.
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Nicknaming themselves the ‘sandhogs’, the Parkes team defeated Narromine in final.
Captain Josh Miles said the team enjoyed the off-season hit out immensely.
“We got a group of friends together, a few Fijian boys and a few others from Parkes and we just looked at the tournament as a bit of fun really,” he said.
“We played a sevens tournament in Mudgee a week ago and then this beach event, so it as a bit of fun, but also a good way to the keep the group together in the off-season.”
The Boars did come to the Dubbo sand with some tactics in mind though.
“Our approach was to throw the ball around and play as close to a touch rugby style as we could,” Miles said.
“But our main tactic was to have fun, we thought if we enjoyed ourselves as much as we could that would be a good result, and the event was a lot of fun.”
All fun was put aside though when the team fronted up for the final.
“We are a competitive lot, so once we made the final we thought we had a good chance of winning it, we are a good side,” Miles said.
“It was a good final against Narromine; I got sent off for making a dangerous tackle, so we were playing for two minutes with only four men, that was a good achievement to stay in the game when we were playing short.
“There were many good teams in the tournament and it’s great we were lucky enough to finish with the prize.
“The player of the tournament was our winger Nathan Lagilagi, he is one of our Fijian boys and he scored a few tries during the event. Another standout player for us was Rusi Lawanikula who is Nathan’s brother in law.”
The Boars captain was full of praise for the organisers of the event.
I think it was a great event, well done to the Dubbo Rhinos for putting on an excellent tournament. It was a great day out for the entire family and hopefully it comes back bigger and better next year, it was well planned in every way,” Miles said.