BACK FOR MORE: Orange City cubs (back, left) Matt Dalton, Lachlan Stewart, Hunter Ward, Mitch Winslade, Tim Dalton, Tom West, (front, left) William Ryan, Oscar Ward and Harry West are all keen to line-up for the Lions again in 2013. Photo: NICK McGRATH 0128nmrug1
THE Orange City Lions’ defence of its Central West Rugby Union junior club championship is about to begin, with the club holding sign-on days in February.
The first sign on day will be on Friday, February 8, from 5-6.30pm while any budding Lions that can’t make the Friday afternoon sign-on needn’t worry with the club holding another day on Saturday, February 9, for an hour from 1pm, both at Waratahs sportsground.
Over 180 juniors were on the Lions’ books last winter and president of Orange City junior rugby club Tony Dalton said the early indications pointed towards another strong year for the Orange City cubs.
“We had really good numbers last year so if we get a proportion of those kids back and a few new faces things will be looking really good,” Dalton said.
“We’ve won the club championship two of the last three years and we’re hoping to do it again.”
The club will field sides in the under 7s, under 9s, under 11s, under 13s, under 15s and under 17s, while if numbers permit, the Lions could field more than one side in each age group.
The junior age groups will start training on February 7 from 5pm at Waratahs sportsground.
Training for the walla age groups will start on March 1.
The competition proper begins on Saturday, April 6.
Dalton said if anyone hadn’t played before, the initial training sessions would be light, skill-based runs to help ease any new faces into the game.
“We’ll train once a week to start off with and it’ll be a mixture of ball skills and training,” he said.
“In the wallas, we run a rugby program supported by the Country Rugby Union and the ARU and it’s designed to get kids involved in the sport in a safe environment. And we encourage parents to get involved as well.”