Dubbo will once again play host to some of the best up-and-coming rugby players from across NSW this long weekend.
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Dubbo Kangaroos Junior Rugby Club will host the Under 13 Boys NSW Junior Rugby Union State Championships at Apex Oval from Saturday through to Monday, with 16 teams set to play.
The Rugby Club's president Adam Willner said the competition is an exciting thing for the club to host after already doing so in 2021.
"It will be a big weekend, last time I looked there were 16 teams coming," he said.
"So that's going to be in the vicinity of 1200 to 1500 people coming here.
"It's going to be a big weekend across three days."
One of the 16 teams who will be playing this weekend is the Central West under 13s, which will feature Dubbo's Hugh McMullen, Kobi Kelleher and Lachlan Pearce while Wellington's Seth Whiteman is also in the squad.
Willner said the Central West side is eager to get out on their home turf against some of the best players in the state.
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"Most definitely they are keen and it stops them travelling," he said.
"The under 14s are playing in Orange but I'd rather be playing in Dubbo than Orange at this time of year.
"They are really excited, all the kids are I think they've had a six-week training camp but they have been playing on Saturday's with their club teams then training on Sunday's.
"They've had a big commitment as have a lot of their families, they've made a big effort over the last six weeks."
Dubbo will have Tom Guy, Harley Pirie, Blake Payne, Andrew Powyer and Ryan Bell all play in the Central West under 14s side in Orange.
This years competition will also include the Country Championships rather than having the carnival earlier in the year.
The teams will be split into four pools with a final to be played on Monday afternoon featuring the two best sides from the weekend.
Willner believes the new format for the competition will help families and the players.
"There will be a country winner and Sydney winner as such but there will be an overall winner as well," he said.
"It just helps lessen the load because traditionally the Country Championships are in May but they've just found the load on families to participate in two championships to be too much.
"So they've just put it in the one weekend which means a lot less travel and being back in May it would've been an eight to 12 week program."
Central West will be in Pool C for the competition along with Sydney Uni, Illawarra and Central North.
Central West will play Illawarra in their first game on Saturday with kick off scheduled to be at 12pm.
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