FOUR Wallabies and several Australian Rugby Union (ARU) support staff put Orange Emus’ and Orange City’s junior stars through their paces at Endeavour Oval on Tuesday night.
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Wallabies’ forwards Sam Carter, Nathan Charles and Scott Fardy, along with inside back Matt Toomua, were guest stars at the clinic along with several of the Australian side’s coaching staff, and a number of ARU development officers.
Five teams full of Lion cubs and two Emus’ sides attended the clinic, part of the Bush2Bledisloe tour’s second leg, taking advantage of the chance to learn from some of the best players in the country.
Orange City’s under 12 side was put through its paces by Carter, and coaches Tim West and Nigel Ryan said the Lion cubs were aware how unique the opportunity was.
“A couple of the kids were lucky, and went up to the open training session at Kinross prior to this as well,” West said.
“It’s not every day they get to the be trained by a Wallaby, they know how lucky they are. They’re all just ecstatic to have this kind of opportunity.
“They were pumped about it from the minute we told them last weekend.”
Despite admitting the clinic was purely for the kids, West and Ryan said it was educational for junior coaches as well.
“There’s a quite a few drills we haven’t seen which we can go through with them now,” Ryan said.
“The kids lift for these guys, they’re sick of our voices,” West added.
“When the Wallabies guys say jump the kids will ask how high. This is easily the biggest roll up for training we’ve had all season, it’s just great.”
Fardy, the Wallabies’ incumbent blindside flanker, explained the importance of clinics like Tuesday night’s, adding how much he enjoyed his experience in Orange.
“It was a great opportunity to see some pretty skilled young kids,” Fardy said.
“It’s great to see, there’s a big future in some of the kids here. Hopefully they stay in rugby and potentially they could be the visiting Wallabies in the future.