While Central West's under 14s were taking the rare opportunity to represent their region on home turf at Pride Park, the under-12, under-13 and under-15 Baby Bulls were on the road chasing Positive Rugby Foundation Boys' NSW State Championship glory.
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The two latter sides went mighty close to doing just that too, in magnificent efforts.
The under-12 Baby Bulls fell out of title contention with three early losses but finished their campaign with a flourish, downing Sydney University (29-nil), Central Coast (17-12) and then Eastwood (12-7) to finish 13th, while their older counterparts were in the trophy mix right until the end.
The under-13 side ultimately finished sixth and the under-15 outfit came seventh.
The former side, playing at Maitland, were heart-breakingly beaten 13-7 by NSW Country rivals Hunter in the fifth-place play-off, after being soundly defeated by eventual runners-up Victoria (41-6) in the final eight.
While back-to-back defeats to finish sixth may not have been the ideal close, the Baby Bulls' campaign was an excellent one.
They bounced back from a first-up loss to eventual champions ACT (31-12) to down Sydney-based powerhouses Eastwood (17-7) and Southern Districts (15-12) and finish second in their pool.
The under-15 Baby Bulls were also forced to dig deep from defeat at Concord.
After a tournament-opening win over West Harbour (21-7) Central West suffered back-to-back defeats to Eastwood (24-10) and Penrith (26-10), but lifted under pressure to knock off Sydney University 17-5 in the final pool game.
They sneaked into the top eight rankings, but were beaten again by eventual champions Penrith (45-10).
They produced a magnificent performance in their final game of the carnival though, edging out Warringah 7-5 in the seventh-place play-off.
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
