Sarah Houston lives on a small property outside of Hay. With what started as a conversation with a friend and a passion for rugby became the Hay Whipper Snippers Junior Rugby Club. She is the Junior Club President, a Player, a Manager and an Uber driver to get players to each gala day. The club was formed in 2017 with an U9s team made up of a couple of older and younger kids. Sarah’s passion and enthusiasm for the game built the little club that gave the kids in the far West of Southern Inland an opportunity to connect in a team sport. In 2019 the enthusiasm reached new highs with 5 teams playing in the Southern Inland Junior Competition. Sarah had a goal to expose and create opportunities for the families who would otherwise not have the chance to play Rugby. This year they have multiple players recognised for representative opportunities. She has mentioned that living in such rural places makes it hard to play, trainings are held on a Friday afternoon in Hay as a central spot for those kids that live on properties outside of town. Families will travel up to 600km for 80 minutes of football all because they love it. A highlight for Sarah was in 2019 the Snippers community hosted a senior men’s night game on Saturday then a junior gala day on the Sunday. Volunteers are always light on however the parents of the players and supporters love getting involved to help. Sarah believes “you can’t be what you can’t see”. 2022 was big step in the right direction having Saturday night Super Rugby games on free to air television. However, there can still be more promotion of these games making it easier for rural players to watch their idols.
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Evelyn George has been refereeing for over 30 years. She started in 1993 in Newcastle after being inspired by the 1991 England World Cup to pick up the whistle. At the time, there were no opportunities for Women to play Rugby. In 2000, she relocated to Southern Inland where she started playing and refereeing. Evelyn would play a full game, run up to the change rooms, grab the whistle, swap shirts, and then run on to referee a full match. She didn’t care about being the only female Match Official in the zone - she didn’t know any better and all the members loved and treated her like one of their own. The appointments were always based on skill and performance, rather than gender, and they supported both her playing ambitions and refereeing goals. Over her 11 years in SIRU as a Match Official, Evelyn saw the Women’s game grow. The Women’s club competition was strong during the early 2000’s, although unfortunately came to a standstill in 2003. Despite this gap in the club competition, the region continued to see a rise in women lacing up the boots, with schoolgirls teams and school programs taking off. Evelyn’s favourite rugby moments include being appointed by Rugby Australia to referee at the Central Coast 7s and Darwin’s Hottest 7s competitions. Despite her high achievements, what means the most to Evelyn is that every Saturday she gets to turn up to Rugby. The teams are happy to have her as their ref and who thank her at the end of each game for a great job. To her, that is the best part about refereeing, and she would encourage everyone to give it a go. Below are some of her favourite pictures. Young vs Hay (2006 Gold Coast Women's 7s (2013) CWRU Women's GF (2016) Country Week (2018) Coolah vs Yeoval (2018) Bathurst Bulldogs vs CSU Women (2019) Total Ag Solutions-Kubota 1st Grade
SIRU Women's Xs
Total Ag Solutions-Kubota 1st Grade
SIRU Women's Xs
Total Ag Solutions-Kubota 1st Grade
SIRU Women's Xs
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