THEY missed out on the NSW Country Junior Rugby Union Championships in 2020, but Central West's leading juniors may still get the chance to pull on a representative jumper this year.
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Their chance could come in a three-week frenzy of October tournaments after the completion of regular club duties.
While Central West Junior Rugby Union held its first representative trials for the 2020 season in October last year, the coronavirus pandemic brought those preparations to a halt.
The virus not only saw the regular season put on hold, but forced the cancellation of the country titles and state championships for both boys and girls.
While there is now a July target for return to play, those representative carnivals will not be reinstated.
"We have cancelled all our rep competitions in juniors ... the reason we did this is because we already lost half a season and we wanted to make sure the season we do have remaining is able to be utilised by 100 percent of our rugby players," NSW Junior Rugby Union president Ben Gregory explained.
"Representative rugby usually only accounts for 10 to 15 percent of our players, we don't want to waste a weekend where 85 percent of our players have to sit out because it's a rep weekend."
But while Gregory said the focus is "purely on club", he pointed out the three-week October school holiday period is a little different.
That is when Central West's junior representatives could get the chance to compete.
"The first weekend of the October school holidays is looking at the Coffs Coast Challenge, which is up at Coffs Harbour, which might be actually something you want to send these teams to, to get the rep teams wearing district jerseys or zone jerseys," Gregory said.
The final week of October is when the NSW State 7s is scheduled to go ahead.
Last year Central West sent under 17s, under 15s and under 13s boys teams plus girls outfits in the same age divisions.
The middle week of the October school holidays could potentially see CWJRU clubs such as Bathurst do battle with those who regularly compete in Sydney competitions.
"We are looking to try and take some of the Sydney clubs on whole, all the different age groups, and take them out to the bush for the weekend and have a big festival of rugby over the second weekend of the October school holidays," Gregory said.
"Ideally we create some really great relationships between some of our city and country clubs and we can maybe build on that in the years to come with trial matches and the like."
