Sport
4 January, 2026
BEST OF 2025: Youngsters impress for undermanned Western Plains
First published May 22, 2025. While results didn’t go the way Western Plains coach Blair Hooper wanted, he couldn’t fault the efforts of his young squad at the 2025 NSW Rugby Union Country Championships at Tamworth last weekend.
The Western Plains squad travelled to Tamworth on Thursday and stayed at Lake Keepit in preparation, allowing for a full training day last Friday in lieu of not being able to train beforehand.
In Pool C of the Caldwell Cup, Western Plains went down 25-12 to New England and then 52-7 to Mid North Coast on the Saturday (May 17).
This meant Western Plains went into the play-off for seventh, eighth and ninth (Richardson Shield) where they lost a thriller 13-12 to Far North Coast on the Sunday (May 18) before meeting Mid North Coast again in their final match, a much-improved 21-7 loss at Pirates Rugby Club.
“Yeah, definitely not the results on the scoreboard,” Hooper said.
“But as far as the boys sort of coming together and bonding and working hard, I think it’s definitely promising moving forward.
“It’s always hard this time of year. We probably only had half of our initial selected squad.
“Everyone is so busy on tractors … that it’s very hard to get away for footy for a long weekend like that.
“What we took over there was a young side lots of colts (under-20s) in the side which is very promising and obviously a big challenge for them to step up to the platform and perform against senior boys.
“But they did so very capably.”
“All in all they really put their hand up given their best shot and I think we just use this year as a as a stepping stone and a building year to move forward.”
Players’ player across the four-match, two-day tournament was young Bogan Bulls (Nyngan) breakaway Jeremy Holmes.
“He proved us at training he could put his hand up,” Hooper said of Holmes.
“He was great in the line-outs, quick on his feet, covers a lot of lot of ground.
“I’d love to have a tracker on him and see how many kilometres he covered. He is built like a greyhound and didn’t do anything wrong.”
Hooper said the second game was symptomatic of the weekend where Western Plains just couldn’t get off to good starts. However, he was happy with how the young squad was highly competitive in three or four matches.
“The first 10 minutes is where most teams put points on us,” he said.
“But the boys really had a crack, it was quite inspiring.”
He said while a June long weekend tournament would suit Western Plains better, it’s his understanding that the May date will remain after zones voted on it previously.
The Warren club had a large contingent in the squad and skipper Hagan Size impressed for the Pumas.
Starting at inside centre before moving to five-eighth to cover starting number 10 Jake Holmes (ankle), Size had an impressive tournament as Western Plains captain. “He just really knows football,” Hooper said of Size.
“He really steered the fellers around. Hagan put his hand up and slotted into that 10m position nicely. He really got the backs good pill and took some hard strong carries when there was no-one outside him,
From Gulargambone, young outside backs Elten Walker, Darcy Neeves and Jaylem Peters all stood up.
Hooper said Walker made some “big tackles on some big boys down the sideline” and suffered a shoulder injury in the process of making one great defensive save.
Provided he can recover quickly from his shoulder injury, Hooper felt Walker was a possible bolter for the NSW Country under-20s side.
“They all played above their bodyweight,” Hooper said. “All very young, all did well. It was great to expose them to this level.”
The Galahs’ hard-working forward Isaac ‘The Axe’ Grimshaw also started the tournament well but unfortunately suffered a concussion.
Coach Hooper, from Warren, also appreciated the efforts of assistants Ben Egan (Warren) and Justin Harvey (Gulargambone) who supported him throughout the Western Plains campaign.
Western Plains at the 2025 NSW Rugby Union Country Championships
Sunday, May 18
Richardson Shield play-off:
Mid North Coast 21 defeated Western Plains 7 (Hagan Size try; William Johnson conversion)
Richardson Shield play-off:
Far North Coast 13 defeated Western Plains 12 (Jaylem Peters, Jack Kelly tries; William Johnson conversion)
Saturday, May 17
Caldwell Cup Pool C:
Mid North Coast 52 defeated Western Plains 7 (Hagan Size try; Size conversion)
Caldwell Cup Pool C:
New England 25 defeated Western Plains 12 (Oscar Nuthall, Joshua Hay-McKenzie tries; Hagan Size conversion)
