THE NSW Waratahs may have come and gone but the big sporting events in Orange will continue over the next month.

Wade Park held 6623 spectators on Saturday night for the Waratahs’ 83-15 trial match win over Fiji Warriors and the venue will soon be turned into a freestyle motocross playground with the Crusty Demons Beyond The Apocalypse Regional Tour scheduled for February 27.

The Australian Cricket Association Masters will then send a team of former state and international stars to the Colour City for a Twenty20 match against Orange on March 5.

And with the success of Saturday night’s rugby union trial coming on the back of the well-received City v Country rugby league match, NRL trial and A-League pre-season games over the past four years, chairman of Orange City Council’s sports committee councillor Jason Hamling says more big events are likely to follow given the city’s growing reputation as a host of major regional sporting fixtures.

“We’ve got the Crusty Demons and the cricket and then after that things will just keep coming in hopefully,” Hamling said.

Hamling was thrilled with the attendance on Saturday night as council were expecting between 6000-7000 rugby fans to flock to Wade Park to see the likes of Wallabies Berrick Barnes and Wycliff Palu.

Council voted last July to outlay the estimated $160,460 to bring the Waratahs and Fiji to Orange and while the forecasted crowd of 6000 to cover costs was exceeded, Hamling says it is too early to know whether council is out of pocket after the game.

But the deputy mayor believes a small financial shortfall would be acceptable given the interest the event created in the city.

“It would be a bit early to work that out but we will look at that over the next week,” he said.

“Even if it did run at a bit of a loss, I’m sure it was a great event for the community.”

And in the wake of the deaths of four young Orange residents in three separate traffic incidents last week, Hamling thinks the game also provided a much needed distraction.

“Orange had had a pretty tough week with losing the four young people so it was good to have something else to think about,” he said.

The Central West rugby community also lost former Dubbo Rhinos player Dan Robinson and $5000 was raised for his family at the game, with the crowd and both teams observing a minute’s silence before kick-off.