Kristin Murdock
17 January 2024, 2:40 AM
NSW Rugby are spreading the love of their sport through a series of holiday camps across regional NSW.
They have just wrapped up the Central North phase of their trip, travelling over 1000 kilometres to six communities including Coonabarabran where 24 participants joined the fun.
Luke Mack, Programs and Development Manager for Rugby NSW said the Western Plains was now the focus for the team with camps to come at Gilgandra, Walgett, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Warren and Narromine.
"This is a program we run every school holidays," Mr Mack said. "We started in October last year and numbers have increased every time. We are just aiming to get kids outdoors and enjoy being active, particularly learning rugby skills."
"We've had 170 participants so far and by the end of the holidays, we should be around the 350 to 400 mark which is great."
Aimed at 12 to 24 year olds, the holiday camps are free of charge and food is provided.
"Our team is based out of Dubbo and have eight or so staff rotating around to each location with four or five on hand at each camp," Mr Mack said.
Upcoming locations for keen rugby lovers are Walgett and Brewarrina on January 18th, Bourke on January 19th and Coonamble, Narromine and Warren on the 26th of January.
The Australia Day camps will feature members from the NSW Women's Rugby team who are training in Dubbo during that week.
"We are lucky enough to have players or coaches from that team to attend all clinics on that day which is awesome," Mr Mack said.
The Walgett camp will be held at the recently reopened pool. While this appears a strange place for a rugby session, Mr Mack said there is a good reason for it.
"We've linked up with Wahu, the water toys company and they've given us heaps of water footies and other water related gear, so we will get some use out of that as well."
For more information, or to register for one of the sessions, contact Janalee Conroy at NSW Rugby on 0407 062 459.