Two years ago girls weren't able to play tackle footy at Orange Public School (OPS).
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Next week, the OPS girls rugby sevens team will face off against the best schools in the state at Waratahs HQ in Sydney.
Both the boys and girls teams have qualified for the semi-finals of the NSW Primary School Sporting Association (PSSA) sevens competition after winning their respective quarter-finals in Coonabarabran on August 17.
Coach Drew Bale said the interest amongst the school's female students was there from day one and had come along in leaps and bounds thanks to the help of Orange rugby legend and Wallaroos manager Amanda Ferguson.
"The opportunities are there for both but up until two years ago there wasn't an avenue for girls to play tackle rugby," he said.
"With the boys we've been doing rugby for the last 10 years and in that time we've made it to state finals seven times.
"This is the second year we've run the girls program, they came third last year. There was massive interest. In fact it was really good because we had Amanda Ferguson helping out.
"There's similar excitement this year because we have a new breed of players. We still have Amanda coming in and supporting the girls."
OPS almost didn't make it to the final four with both games at Coonabarabran going down to the last few seconds.
The boys scored on the last play of the game to beat Tamworth 28-21 while the girls also snatched victory in the final seconds as they defeated Inverell 3-2.
Mr Bale said the teams had earned the right to pit themselves against the best in NSW.
"The girls and boys played around seven games to qualify, the last games were up in Coonabarabran," he said.
"Both of those games went down to the wire, literally the last 10 seconds. So after winning those games they now get to test themselves against the best in NSW.
"The boys really had to fight through the second half, they really wanted it. The girls lucked out a bit, they didn't play as well as they could have but still managed to win right at the end."
The sides will play their semi-finals and final or third/fourth placed playoff on Friday, September 8.
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