Eight teams from across the state will do battle for the prestigious cup and local hopes, the Western Warriors, will be looking to improve on last year's tournament at Mudgee, where they secured the second tier plate win.

Warriors player Ian Burns said the side was quietly confident of a good result.

"The Warriors are made up of police officers from a wide area including Bourke, Nyngan and Orana, including about six from Dubbo. We've got a pretty strong squad with some good players so we should go pretty well," Burns said.

They will face some strong competition from teams on the north coast and Hunter districts, as well as a team of emergency services and corrective services personnel.

The sides will be split into two pools of four with three round robin games, followed by finals. The top two teams in each pool will go into the major semi-finals and the bottom two teams into minor semis.

The winners of the major semi progress to the cup final and losers go through to the plate decider. The winners of the minor semis go through to the bowl final.

"There is a lot of rugby to be played. Games are half an hour with five minutes at half-time and between matches," Burns said.

"Some games will be taken pretty seriously, others are just a bit of fun. There is a great social aspect to the carnival and these teams don't play together during the year, they just come together for this tournament."

Most of the players in teams will be current or former players but Burns said some who have signed up are newcomers to the game, enthusiastic to get involved.

As well as the enjoyment of a once-a-year hit out, the main aim of the Country Cup is to raise money for charity.

The bulk of proceeds raised from this year's event will go to Father Riley's Youth Off The Streets at Bourke, PCYC Bourke and Police Legacy.

Among the prizes up for grabs on the day is a 2014 Waratahs jersey signed by the premiership winning side.