It was a bit of a trip back in time for McCutcheon on both counts.

He attended the camp back in 1998 and spoke glowingly about his experiences.

The 25-year-old also played at the state carnival in his primary school days.

“It’s a pathway I took many years ago,” he recalled.

“I was fortunate to play in a couple in 1998 and ’99.”

He was at school at Narromine Public at the time, and represented the Western region.

“It’s good to come back and be a part of it,” he said.

“It’s an important part of the development of junior rugby.”

And as a Country kid himself, he knows what it means for them.

“It’s a good opportunity for Country kids to flex their muscles and see what they’ve got,” he said.

“The Country kids do have a fair crack at it.” 

McCutcheon unfortunately hasn’t seen a lot of field time this season after dislocating his ankle early in the Super rugby season.

“It’s been five-and-a-half months. I’ve had two surgeries and still can’t run,” he said.

“But everything’s going to plan.

“I’ve just got to bide my time.”

He helped launch the camp with New England Mutual CEO Kevin Dupe and camp coordinators Dave and Paul Schmude.

The Waratahs are strong supporters of the camp, which will be held from January 13-16 next year and again have the backing of New England Mutual as primary 

sponsor.

The players involved this week are part of their target age group and Dave Schmude said they had fielded plenty of enquiries.

“A lot of people have been keen to lock a place in,” he said.

Not just this week but over the past couple of months, with interest coming in from as far away as Western Australia.

“It speaks volumes for the quality of coaches and events we put on,” he said.

This year they are also making a big push for female campers and Armidale’s Australian representative Emma Gillogly was also on hand for the launch.

“We’re keen to promote the girls to come and have a separate girls’ camp,” Schmude said.

Combined Independent Schools claimed the championship silverware, defeating Polding 52-7 in the final.

It was their fourth win in five years, and saw St Mary’s Scone’s Jack Madden, St Xavier’s Gunnedah’s Tom Latham, Nicholas Murray and Toby Gavin, Holy Trinity’s Sam Caskey and Brady Mather, St Joseph’s Warialda’s Angus Bell and St James’ Muswellbrook’s Harry Duggan have to settle for silver.

CIS did the damage in the first half.

“There was a really strong wind behind CIS in the first half,” Polding manager John Nugent said.

“They used it to the best of their ability and kept us in our half, and piled 42 points on us. 

“But credit to the boys, they came back and scored first in the second half.”

It was a credit to them too to make their second successive final.

“The first training session we had was on the Sunday afternoon,” Nugent said.

“It was a huge effort from them to come together in two days and play in the State Championship final.”

The home side finished its  campaign on a bright note with wins against North Coast (14-5) and Riverina (26-21).

“They were both hard-fought wins,” North West coach Tom Bartlett-Taylor said.

“They went out and led both games and let the other sides back in.”

Against Riverina they led 26-5 or something like that, he said, but they managed to hold out.

“It was a good way to finish,” Bartlett-Taylor said.

He said they started gelling more as a team and used their backline more.

Rowena’s Charlie Radford was outstanding all week and was both the players’ and coaches’ pick as their best.

He picked up 17 of the 22 votes from the players.

Bartlett-Taylor also singled out Tamworth Public’s Zack Taylor and Logan Griffiths for their efforts.

Taylor mightn’t have done a lot of flashy things but got in there and did what he was asked.

Griffiths had to play pretty much all of North West’s games and  worked hard at prop.