'Great friendship' makes duo's World Cup honour all the more special

After playing a number of sports for virtually four decades, it was time to hang up the boots.

"I thought I was done," she said.

"I said I was sick of dealing with injuries and preparing the body and all that sort of stuff."

But the chance to trial for an elusive Australian cap led Grose to reconsider and keep playing for a little longer.

It's a good thing she did, as Grose is now preparing to jet to England to represent her country at the Touch World Cup.

"I had a bit of a think about it and I thought 'no, I'm going to give it a crack'," she said.

"It just goes to show that you're probably never really too old to represent Australia.

"I'm stoked."

In a huge achievement for Dubbo Touch Association, two players from the region will be in action at the World Cup.

Grose will play in the Australian women's 40s side while Madi Drew will line up in the Australian women's opens side.

The opens side is the highest standard in the country and Grose had nothing but praise for Drew's achievement.

This will be the second World Cup for Drew, who made the team in 2019 shortly after moving to Dubbo.

"If touch football was an Olympic sport, she'd be in it," Grose said.

"That's amazing in itself. Madi had dedicated a lot of her time and since moving to Dubbo she's continued to travel and train and even sometimes training on her own.

"She's an outstanding person and she's an outstanding touch player."

Despite having represented her country on a number of occasions and already won a World Cup, the achievement is no less meaningful for Drew.

"It gets more special every time, I think," she said.

"You just learn to appreciate it so much more. It's an absolute honour."

And much like Grose showered praise on Drew, the opens star returned favour for the recently announced NSW Touch Football country director.

"She seriously commits to everything," Drew said.

"She's the biggest yes woman. She would never let anyone down and she stays so humble doing it.

"She's truly amazing and such an amazing sportswoman."

The pair have struck up a strong friendship since first meeting at a function after a Tough State of Origin series roughly six years ago.

"We swapped numbers and have been mates ever since," Grose said.

"We got along straight away. It's been a great friendship," Drew added.

Grose is just one of the many people Drew is thankful for since moving to Dubbo.

Playing touch at a high level requires plenty of commitment but the support of teammates in a number of sports as well as family and friends has allowed Drew to continue to thrive despite living in a regional area.

Drew has travelled to attend three Australian training camps in the lead-up to World Cup but she's also be required to do her own training and stay in the condition required to play opens-level touch.

"Nic and people from Dubbo Touch have come and helped, some of the CYMS league tag girls come down to the fields one day a week for some extra running and skills and I've been really grateful for that," Drew said.

"It means so much. The Queensland girls and the Sydney girls, they're able to meet each other each week and, obviously, living in a rural area, it's a bit harder for me and Nic so to have that support, I'm so grateful and it means so much."

The duo will have plenty of family and support with them when the World Cup kicks off on July 15.

Australia has been the dominant force in global touch and won both the men's and women's opens divisions at every World Cup since 1988.

Drew said the simple is to be "world champions again" while Grose was also confident, but expected New Zealand to pose a challenge in the 40s division.