OXLEY Diggers had a mixed debut outing at Jack Woolaston Oval on Saturday with the league tag women getting the better of North Tamworth but the men going down to the University of Newcastle Sea Horses.
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The women kicked-off the Diggers debut season with a six tries to four win over the Bears.
The men then narrowly went down to the Sea Horses eight tries to six.
The game was played in four 20 minute quarters and Diggers coach Jamie Trindall was pretty happy with what he saw considering they only had two on the bench and "haven't had too much ball work together".
"None of us have played together before," Trindall said.
They haven't trained together a lot for that matter either.
"We've probably only really been training the last couple of weeks," he said.
And even then they haven't been able to get all the players that are on the books there.
"We're getting most to training but not all at the one time," Trindall said.
"Hopefully today's game will encourage them to turn up to training."
The Diggers didn't take long to find their feet scoring within the first couple of minutes.
The Sea Horses though just had a bit too much for them in the end.
"Defensively we were good," Trindall said.
"Our fitness let us down towards the end."
That's something he'll be looking to pick up over the next couple of months.
Having only just come together this season there is a lot to still nut out, positions being one of them.
"A lot of players today were playing out of position," Trindall said.
He said he's given everyone three choices for positions they would like to play, and is hoping to be able to give them a run there over the next couple of trials.
"Hopefully by Armidale in a couple of weeks I'll have a rough idea," he said.
They'll play the Rams on March 8.
Next Saturday they'll head down to Scone for what should be another good hit-out.
"We've got another couple of months to work on everything," Trindall said.
"Hopefully by the time the competition starts we should be a pretty good side."
He thought Lynken Dixon at half-back, Pat Strong in the centres and second rower Jarrod Denman had particularly strong games on Saturday .
In the league tag trial fresh from her Australian U18s squad selection Abby Schmiedel was one of the stars. She scored three or four of the Diggers six tries.
