STARS past, present and emerging will be on show today.
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It will be a bit of a festival of rugby across the region with Narrabri commemorating its 50th anniversary, Gunnedah hosting its iuaugural Tens for Ten Thousand Tournament, Central North and New England’s colts and seniors trialling in Tamworth, and the Northern Inland ARU Junior Gold boys tackling Souths Australia in their final home games for the competition.
That will also be in Tamworth and played under lights at Scully Park with the 15s kicking-off at 5.45pm and the 17s at 7pm.
The 15s will be out to build on what they did against Sydney North West last week.
15s’ co-coach Gus Comi said despite the scoreline of the last game there had been a noticeable improvement in the squad every game.
“We are a work in progress and you can see the combinations getting better as we spend more time as a squad,” Comi said.
The 17s will be looking for an improved performance after a disappointing display against Sydney North, particularly in defence.
They bled badly in the midfield against Sydney North West.
Not surprisingly defence will be a big focus today.
“We need to stick to our structures and deny the opposition the opportunity to score points,” head coach Andrew Verrell said.
Preceding the Junior Gold fixtures, at Tamworth Rugby Park, the Kookaburras and Lions will continue to tune-up for this month’s Country Championships.
The colts will play each other at noon.
The seniors will then clash, followed by Mid North Coast and Western Plains with the losers of the respective games and winners then meeting.
Following that Tamworth will play a composite Kookabaurras colts side.
The Magpies are also sending a side across to Gunnedah, where they will be one of 12 teams vying for the $6000 winners riches.
Moree, Inverell, Walcha, St Alberts (2) will also be fielding teams along with Coolah, Coonabarabran, Geurie and the hosts.
The action starts at 11am.
At the same time out at Narrabri the Narrabri First XV will be taking on the Presidents XV in what is one of the feature events of the Blue Boars 50th anniversary celebrations.
The game will involve luminaries of both local and international acclaim, most notably former Wallaby centre Tim Horan.
The dual World Cup winner was regarded as one of the best centres in the world, and will play in president Jack Findley’s side.
“It’s looking like a great weekend,” Findley said.
The festivities kicked-off last night with each of the decades reuniting at the club they used to drink at during their playing days and then all meeting up at the RSL club.