CENTRAL North juniors hopefuls converged on Gunnedah on Sunday for the first training-selection day for the Kookaburras’ representative sides.
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Around 100 attended the day, which was for the U12s through to U17s teams.
It was a promising roll-up for the first session.
“We were very happy with the numbers we had,” CN rep event coordinator Michelle Edwards said.
They included one girl, who was trialling in the 12s.
“Girls are welcome in the U12s,” Edwards said.
It’s the only girl she can recall in the last five years at least.
Numbers in the older ages were affected a bit by the Junior Gold Cup, with Northern Inland playing a double header, and some of the potential triallists involved in that.
With no games this weekend they should be right for Sunday’s trials at Barraba.
They’ll get underway at 10am.
The U18s will also be trialling on Sunday at Tamworth Rugby Park from 11am.
The Country Championships will be interspersed over three weekends, with the 18s kicking off the program at Newcastle on May 16/17.
The 12s, 13s and 14s will follow the following weekend in Armidale.
The remaining three – 15s, 16s and 17s – will be held on the June long weekend and be combined with the State Championships.
To help the sides prepare for the championships they will have a few warm-up games.
The first will be a three-way trial against Hunter and Central Coast at Scone on March 22.
“That will still be part of the selection criteria,” Edwards said.
The Junior Gold Cup boys had mixed fortunes on their weekend venture to Sydney.
While the 17s had a two-point win and one-point loss, the 15s received a couple of touch-ups.
The big scorelines though didn’t portray their effort.
They were also up against it size-wise and struggled to counter it, especially against Sydney South Harbour on Saturday.
“They were enormous,” coach Jeff Watt said.
Some of them, he reckoned, wouldn’t look out of place in Central North first grade.
That was the big difference.
“They just wore us down – we had to defend so much,” he said.
Their ability to stand in the tackles and offload hurt Central North.
Watt wasn’t disappointed with the effort though. It was an improvement on the Hunter game, which was what he asked of them.
“Our guys were willing,” he said.
“And technically – in the scrum, lineouts and at the breakdown – we were really good.”
Some of their defence was also fantastic and when they did get the ball they did some good things, they just couldn’t get it for long enough.
