THE NSW Country Eagles are no sure things to win this year’s National Rugby Championship, but their general manager James Grant said they have no intention of playing boring rugby.

The Eagles were a major success story in the first edition of the competition in 2014, making the semi-finals before succumbing to eventual champions Brisbane City.

Under the rules of the competition, penalty goals are worth only two points while successful try conversions are worth three in order to encourage more expansive and attacking play.

Former Wallabies representative Grant claimed it is an edict he wants his team to adhere to, as he spoke at Ashwood Park this week.

The Bathurst venue will host a match between the Eagles and the North Harbour Rays in October. The build up to the game was officially kicked off this week.

“It is a tough competition to win, particularly with some of the Super 15 team aligned sides who have a lot of infrastructure and great set-ups, they are always going to be hard to beat,” Grant said.

“But we want to be competitive once more and as much as anything, we want to play a good brand of rugby.

“We aren’t a results-based side, it is about how we play. If we play positive football and try and attack as much as we can, the results will take care of themselves anyway.”

Having played first grade rugby league with Balmain, Grant has seen the best of both worlds when it comes to the scoring nuances of the two codes.

He is a self-confessed fan of the different approach used in the NRC.

“There is a bit of opposition to the changes, but you could see last year there were only three or four penalty goals kicked all tournament which means the ball is in play a lot more,” he said.

“They policed the breakdown more closely, it produced some yellow cards, but again it kept the game cleaner.

“With the kicking, it meant that if someone made a break you would have defenders busting their backside to chase him down and force him wide to make for a tougher conversion. We won a couple of games just from doing that.

“I can’t see the IRB adopting the wholesale changes, but it certainly worked for this competition.”

While in Bathurst, the Orange rugby product detailed the Eagles’ plans to continue integrating themselves with NSW country centres after staging matches in Orange and Dubbo last year.

“We get four home games this season and given that we’re affiliated with Easts and Randwick in Sydney, we’re going to stage one of them there while the other three we’re taking out to the country,” he said.

“The whole idea of this team is based around giving a lot of players of country origin a chance to get on the field at this level, around 70 per cent of the squad are from the country. The rest are made up from Easts and Randwick.

“The Central West is one of the stronger rugby union areas in NSW, so it makes sense to get another game out here. Bathurst is a major regional centre and has a great facility here.

“[Bathurst’s] Charlie Clifton is in the squad for this season and it is a good opportunity for him to play at home as well. 

“This whole competition is designed to give players like him a better pathway from club football through to Super Rugby.”