THE McHugh sisters, Tamar and Yuri, are arguably the most crucial element to the Grafton Redmen Women’s 10s side.
Tamar’s instinctive combination with her sister at club level is one of the reason’s Grafton sit in second place on the Mid North Coast Rugby ladder.
Tamar, a natural leader, has an arsenal of skills and understands the game, while Yuri’s mix of speed, strength and natural instincts has her up there with some of the top try-scorers in the competition.
This weekend the McHugh sisters will be joined by another Redmen standout player in Angie MacDermott in representing Mid North Coast at the NSW Country Championships in Tamworth.
For 24-year-old Tamar, it will be her second year representing the Tomahawks and she shared a bit of advice for her Redmen teammates.
“It’s a great experience playing at the Country Championships and it’s a level up from playing club footy,” Tamar said at training during the week.
“It’s fifteen a side so it’s a lot different to playing tens. You kneed to know your position and play your role for the team.
“My advice would be, just give it a hot crack.”
Women’s rugby around the world has come on in leaps and bounds the last few years, and the Mid North Coast competition is no exception. Spectators have embraced the women’s game and are in awe of the skill level and physicality.
Tamar agreed she has seen a major improvement in local women’s rugby the past few seasons especially the Grafton Redmen side who have been in scintillating form this season.
“Our team has improved massively this season,” she said. “We would not have put on so many points last season as we have this season.
“We have been training hard, working on our skills and it is now paying off.”
The McHugh sisters are both from a league background while MacDermott developed her skills playing league tag and touch football.
“I played a bit of league tag and touch footy and started playing under sixteen rugby last year,” MacDermott said.
“This year I decided to play with the senior girls Redmen side, and it has been great.”
Tamar added: “I started in 2019 after one of the girls playing for the Redmen reached out and asked me if I wanted to play rugby. I said to her, “What’s rugby?”. I came over and played and never left.”
“I had a league background as well,” Yuri said. “I also played netball for a lot of years and Tamar asked me to play rugby and here I am.”
Mid North Coast’s first game is against Central Coast.
