RUGBY UNION
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More than 130 Central West Junior Rugby Union hopefuls were competing for representative positions among their respective age groups at Glen Willow Regional Sporting Complex yesterday.
Central West held representative trial matches against Central North in the under 12s, 13s, 14s and under 18s in Mudgee.
Central West Junior Rugby Union vice-president and representative co-ordinator, Mike Dalton, said the day was about finalising each squad in order to begin preparations for the country and state championships later this year.
“At the moment we’ve got squads in each age group of about 34 players and after today we’ll cut it down to 22,” he said.
“So it is a bit of a culling and some boys will be upset but that’s the nature of selection.
“We’ve got independent selectors here from all around the region and they keep behind the play so families and parents don’t become involved.”
Dalton said teams for the 12s, 13s and 14s were going to be announced yesterday while older age groups would be announced in the coming weeks.
“They are all pretty eager and some of these boys are putting everything on the line,” he said.
“It’s good to see the rugby season start again and the posts back up everywhere. The kids are loving it and a storm is about to blow in but that’s rugby season,” he said.
Spectators and participants were lucky to avoid most of the storm front as it swept past Glen Willow.
Dalton said due to the Junior Gold program the Central West under 15s and 17s couldn’t play and the Central North 16s were unable to come down from New England.
“The Central West 16s had a trial at Molong today and they will be selected next week at Stannies [Bathurst]. The 15s will be selected the following week at Parkes and 17s are having a selection trial today too,” Dalton said.
Across all age groups Mudgee Wombats were well represented with 39 players selected for the Central West trials.
Mudgee will be hosting the 2014 senior NSW Country Rugby Championships at Glen Willow on March 29 and 30.