New face scores late match-winning try as Kinross beats Sydney powerhouse

The team won two games in the Independent Sporting Association (ISA) competition last year, including a dominant 36-19 win against rivals St Stanislaus' College.

Kinross hosted Waverley College, Cranbrook School and Marist College Canberra on April 16-18 for a preseason rugby camp.

They went down 19-14 to Waverley in the first game on Tuesday but managed to sneak a 7-5 win against Cranbrook with a late try to Forbes product Ollie Walker.

Assistant coach Nathan Short said the camp was a good chance to gauge where they were at before the ISA season kicks off in June.

"Our boys have been working pretty much for eight weeks," he said.

"It's a good chance to test how we're going and also for the other schools to come out and enjoy some Orange hospitality.

"We'll actually play Cranbrook in about five or six weeks again, they'll come back to us.

"It's just more of a chance to put everything together that we've been working towards."

Mr Short said the group had a lot of growth left in them with he and head coach Matt Tink adamant they can build on their 2023 showing.

"We'll hopefully build on that a little bit," he said.

"I think we're in a little bit better of a spot this year than we were this time last year.

"Our boys have been working really hard and we can build on that.

"There's a lot of guys this year that will be in year 12 who played first XV in year 11.

"So we've got the chance to to build. At the end of the day, we did only win two ISA games last year."

He said Kinross' strength was spread throughout the team with no one player being relied upon to lift the team out of tricky situations.

"I think we're a really well balanced team," he said.

"We've got a couple of new guys that are finding their feet.

"Ollie Walker, from Forbes, he's finding his feet, he scored that try to win the game.

"So that's a nice touch for him, but he'll be better for this training camp as well."