NSW captain Ruan Sims is hoping the Blues' first win in 17 years of interstate clashes against the Queensland women is the start of a period of dominance for the NSW women's team.
Sims was elated with the historic victory, which she said was a result of a build-up of months of hard work as well as improving resources and development in women's rugby league south of the Tweed.
"We were ecstatic when we won and you can see it in the footage. It's 17 years in the making and the last three months we've been working so very hard for each other," Sims told NRL.com ahead of Harvey Norman Women in League Round.
"[Blues coaching and support staff] Ben Cross, Jamie Feeney, Chris Studdon, all those guys have got us where we wanted to be and when push came to shove we were tough enough to come away with the win."
Better resources and an improving player pool – and a reduced dominance of Queensland representation in the Jillaroos squad – were among the other factors Sims attributed to the long-awaited win.
"A big thing for them is they've always had the majority of girls in the Jillaroos team so they would play together at club, then come together at state and the majority of that playing group would then go on to Jillaroos," Sims said.
"So the majority of Jillaroos going back and playing for one state means they are going to be a tougher opponent.
"This year it's almost a 50/50 split and they've got a couple of players who didn't make the Jillaroos trying to prove their worth and so did we so I think the fact the Jillaroos have been so expansive with their programming and included so many people in their extended playing groups means the quality is increasing," she added.
That increasing player pool in terms of extended train-on squads had extended to the Blues set up, according to Sims.
"We expanded the training group, it wasn't just the 20 players you saw on the weekend, it was a good 40 players that we've been working on a pathways program with which means hopefully we'll be able to start our own little legacy."
