The local club spent a balmy evening on the deck at Parklands on Friday for an informal night with the Waratahs.

Over 120 guests had the opportunity to talk with some of  Australia’s best rugby players and coaches, including players; Nick Phipps, Sekope Kepu, Jed Holloway and Michael Hooper.

And coaches Darryl Gibson, Chris Malone, Nathan Grey and Waratah general manager, Tim Rapp.

Trent Robinson interviewed Gibson and the players in a panel style question and answer format, with the audience also getting their opportunity to quiz the Tahs.

Topics included the players’ Rugby journeys, the NSW development system [and New Zealand’s as well, given Gibson and Kepu both have experience with as well], pre-season training, and more.

As well as the importance of this “from the beach to the bush” campaign, and Gibson said that with a number of his players coming from country areas “we’ve got to get back to our roots”.

Two jumpers were auctioned, the first of which was the new, 2017 Wombat jumper featuring new sponsors Bowden Silver on the back and the Waratah logo on the right breast.

Mudgee is the first club in NSW to have this logo on their jumper. The jumper was auctioned off for $2400.

Then a 2017 Waratahs jumper, signed by the full squad went for $1900.

The Waratah weekend began with a large roll up of Wombats, juniors, seniors and women, to a training run at Jubilee Oval on Thursday night.

A series of sessions were run by the Waratah Development Officers, who were impressed with the numbers of players who turned up in the heat and went through a gruelling two hours of training.

Waratah fans saw the Waratahs in action for the first time on Friday afternoon when they took to Glen Willow for their final training run before the match against the Brumbies on Saturday.

And when the big moment arrived the fans in blue enjoyed seeing  the young Waratah side give the experienced Brumbies a rugby lesson to the tune of 53 – 17.

In an impressive display in hot conditions.