Central North Junior Rugby Union president Renee Park says providing the region's juniors with an avenue to play some rugby this season is "as important as ever".
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This week the zone body finalised the start date for it's gala days (for players 12 and under)) and Friday night regional competition (for under-14s-under-18s).
The first of what will be eight gala days is set down for July 26 at Narrabri while the Friday night competition will kick-off on July 31 and comprise six rounds plus finals with the grand final to be played on September 18.
One of the reasons for that is the valuable role that sport plays in the community.
"Once it was cleared safe to do so, it was extremely important for us to be able to get rugby happening because sport is the life blood of our communities," Park said.
"We have a strong culture of support and being there for your mates on and off the field."
"Sport is important to our wellbeing - especially now with what we've faced and been through and the strong values within the sport of rugby and being a team sport, it is an essential part of our community.
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"Our rural areas in particular have had a tough couple of years with the drought and add COVID, being able to play rugby this year is as important as ever."
Park said everything is looking good and the indications are interest is as strong as pre-COVID.
Most of the junior clubs are back training and reporting good roll-ups, she said, and while there will be some people who mightn't play they should still have as many teams as they had before.
"Greenspace and referees will be our biggest issues," she said.
This year's Friday night competition is expected to be the biggest yet with The Armidale School set to join, and the addition of girls 7s'.
"It's (girls competition) something we sort of thought might have been another year off but the demand's there, we've had no choice but to bring it in," Park said.
"And to be honest they're as keen as anyone to play this year."
Park said they haven't had to make too many adjustments to accommodate the various restrictions and protocols for returning to play. The main thing is hygiene and crowd control.
At the moment the limit for crowds is one person per four square metres.
"On our Friday night comps we generally play only one game at a time anyway," she said.
"We'll just structure it so the teams basically come in play, and then leave, so there's no hanging around as much as they used to."
There are a few extra measures they do have to put in place, which will require some additional manpower, but Park said they are fortunate to have a "really good strong volunteer base".
"I've had conversations with each of our clubs in the last week, in particular around our formats and how we'll play our games out," she said.
"Everyone's digging deep and saying whatever needs to be done we're willing to do it."
They are still to finalise the draws for the Friday night competition, and the other dates and venues for the gala days but are planning a gala celebration to finish.
"Normally our gala days are non-competitive, they're more about participation," Park said.
"But our last gala day this year we'd like to have it as championship round and really make it a good celebration of rugby."
