PLAYER shortages, bizarre walk-offs and huge scorelines have marred the Blowes Clothing Cup over the weekend, leaving Central West Rugby Union (CWRU) officials with a lot of work to do.
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Only three first grade games were completed, and the closest match of the round was Forbes’ 41-5 victory over a gallant Dubbo Rhinos at Caltex Park.
In an unprecedented day for the code in the region; Narromine forfeited all four grades to Bathurst Bulldogs, Cowra’s trip to CSU Bathurst was called off due to the state of University Oval, Parkes had players walk off the field as their match with Orange Emus was called off with 10 minutes remaining and Mudgee could muster just two tries across four grades against Dubbo Kangaroos.
CWRU president Frank Newman admits there are issues that need to be solved quickly as the finals series approaches.
“I’m not going to comment on what happened with Parkes and Emus, other than to say the reports I’m hearing are disappointing,” Newman said.
“With Narromine, I’ve had long talks with (Gorillas president) Anthony Tuck out there and he’s working hard to try and get their teams on the park.
“For some reason player numbers are abnormally low and we’re extremely concerned about it. I’m confident Narromine will have teams on the field in coming weeks, but just which grades remains to be seen.
“It’s hard to change anything as far as the competition structure is concerned at this point of the season, but we certainly are looking at things for coming seasons.”
