The girls competition was very strong and acquitted themselves very well. 

Although they didn’t win a game, they were competitive in all their matches. 

With a limited build up and a number of new players to this level of competition, it was always going to be tough for them.

The girls tried hard and took a lot of experience from the weekend.

The men were in the open division. 

After the first days play where they recorded a win and two losses, they were placed in the plate division for the remainder of the tournament. 

Each team gets graded after the first day.

The second day was very productive for the Parkes team. 

They recorded two wins, a draw and a loss. 

This gave them a ranking of equal second in their pool. 

They missed out by one try (on for and against) to go into the easier side of the draw for the quarter finals on the last day of competition. 

Their quarter finals opponent was the powerful Western Suburbs from Sydney. 

Wests were coached by current Australian assistant coach Paul Sfier.

Sfier is a regular visitor to Parkes with his coaching clinics and mentoring of the junior representative teams. 

In a very physical game which Wests led 3-0 after only five minutes, the Parkes boys showed great composure to fight back to 4-3 at one stage, only to go down 7-4 at the final whistle. 

They took some consolation out of the defeat as Wests went on to win the division. 

The coaching staff of Tony Dwyer and Tod Healey would like to thank all the players for the way they conducted themselves over the four days. 

They were a credit to their town and association.

The teams would like to thank their many sponsors for their support in helping them get to Port Macquarie.

Both sides took good experience from the carnival and will head into next year’s State Cup with added enthusiasm.