But, as it has done for so many the COVID-pandemic turned the North Tamworth centre's plans on their head, and instead he finds himself winding back the clock to his high school days at Farrer after linking up with Tamworth for their New England Rugby Union campaign.

Not that he played a lot of rugby back then. It was "just a bit of muck around thing".

League was his go, and still is with Clegg celebrating his 10^th season with the Bears last year.

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But faced with the prospect of playing no footy this year when the Group 4 season was cancelled - which he "didn't like the idea of" - he looked around for other options. Training with a few of his Bears team-mates post the announcement, the discussion came up about what they were going to do.

The Magpies was thrown around. Soccer was also mentioned. But Clegg thought he'd have a run with the Magpies.

And so on Saturday, he will play his first rugby game for about 12 years when he lines up in the centres for the Magpies in their trial against the Dubbo Kangaroos.

He is one of a few Bears who will be pulling on the black and white this year.

A couple of the Fijian recruits have also been training along with Jeremy York. The latter is no stranger to rugby having played with both Pirates and Barraba.

Clegg admitted to feeling a bit lost at the start.

"I was like a lost sheep out there at training, I didn't know what to do," he said.

"It was a total different skillset."

Not being permitted to do contact drills at training initially didn't help, but with a few more training sessions under his belt now, he is starting to feel a lot more comfortable.

"Now that we're getting into a few more game-orientated training sessions I'm starting to pick things up," Clegg said.

"There's similarities there, it's just when you get tackled you don't get up and play the ball."

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He joked about also having to try and learn to speak learn Fijian.

"I think there's only me and one other guy in the backline that aren't Fijian," he said.

"The barrier there's a bit tricky but we're starting to pick it up."

After what has seemed like an eternity of a pre-season, he has virtually been through three, Clegg can't wait for Saturday.

"It will be good to finally get into a game and get the body into some contact," he said.

He has missed that.

"I like the physical side of things," he added.

The first grade clash will kick-off at 3.15pm. Preceding that there will be a colts game between Dubbo and Pirates, while the Magpies and Roos women's 7s and second grade will also take to the field.