Bathurst coach Mick Burgess knows a thing or two about preparing a representative country rugby outfit.
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Or more to the point, the NSW Corellas coach knows how tough it is.
Burgess is holding a different clipboard this weekend as the head coach of the NSW Country Eagles women side in its second Kerry Chikarovski Cup clash against the Sydney Rays on Monday at Goulburn, but with just 24 hours together as a group to prepare in the lead-up, there’s a familiarity Burgess can’t avoid.
“Typical country preparation,” Burgess quipped.
“You don’t really get a lot of time together in these sorts of situations, and we’ll have the day before the game but it’ll be with essentially a new team.”
Burgess has had to chop and change his line-up after the 49-7 opening round loss to the Greater Sydney Rams on September 2.
“Player availability has hurt, there’s some players in sevens competitions as well, but gives us an good opportunity go give players a game at that level … it should be good fun,” Burgess added.
“Some will meet for the first time on Sunday afternoon, but that’s the nature of country rugby.
“We’ll have to rely on the ability of the players in the team, there won’t be many combinations.”
But what there will be is limited fear of a Sydney Rays side expected to be slick in terms of its combinations ahead of Monday’s clash.
The second round Chikarovski Cup clash will act as a curtain raiser for the National Rugby Championship clash between the Eagles’ men and Sydney Rays at Simon Poidevin Oval, Goulburn.
Burgess says with a stack of players out for the women’s game, he’ll call on a younger outfit for this long weekend clash in the country.
And that youth movement will be a good thing.
“They don’t know who they’re playing, there’s no preconceived ideas when these girls run out, so they’ll take it to them,” Burgess said of his side.
“They’re just a bit unknown, the Sydney teams would have had three selections run, a few more combinations.
“They’ve played together before. They’re probably a bit over us there in that regard, but we’re not going out there to get beat-up on. There’s a fair bit of talent in our side.
Burgess will call on a handful of Central West’s best in the side, one also managed by long-time Central West women’s rugby advocate Amanda Ferguson.
Fellow former Bulldog mentor Murray Hooper is an assistant coach.