A CENTURY ago a group of young men forged life-long bonds standing side by side as they prepared for war, bonds Australians still recognise today.
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This morning, a group of fathers and sons are hoping honouring those bonds will help forge their own united front.
Orange City and Orange Emus players in the 2015 Central West Junior Rugby Union squads travelled to Sydney overnight with their dads before attending this morning’s dawn service at North Ryde, where the 400-odd Central West father-son representation will join 100-year commemorations of Anzac Day.
The idea behind the trip is to help the players in the CWJRU’s under 12s through to under 17s squads bond, while also allowing their fathers in on the experience.
Orange City’s Jayne West was in charge of orchestrating the Lions’ leg of the planning and said the effort has been logistically massive, with players training today with Australian Rugby Union representatives before attending more Anzac Day commemorations, this time at Allianz Stadium for the Waratahs and Rebels Super 15 clash.
“Mark Dalton, the vice-president of Central West, he instigated it and it’s probably been in the works since they competed in trials earlier in the year, February,” West said, the Central West squads to play at their respective country championship campaigns at the end of May.
“The idea is to get them all to know each other, get the dads to know each other.
“They’ll head to Sydney Olympic Park, go to dawn service at North Ryde ... it’s a nice way for them to get that comradeship.”
She said the region’s presence at both the dawn service at North Ryde and the Waratahs game would be tremendous.
“We bought 400 tickets to the game,” West said.
“Just getting everyone fed and a bed has been a big effort.”
The Central West teams will also play trials against North Sydney at Boronia Park, Hunters Hill as the country championships and June’s state championships loom large.
