All roads lead to Tamworth this weekend for the annual NSW Country Championships being staged at the home of two forms of music – country and western.

Central West, Illawarra, Hunter, Central Coast, Far North Coast, Mid North Coast, Western Plains, Central North and New England will battle it out at Scully Park and the Tamworth Pirates fields for the silverware.

The colts and women’s rep teams will also play throughout the weekend with the Caldwell Cup final being the culmination of what should be a cracker of a weekend.

I’m hoping that they have shipped in enough beer and snacks to cope with the influx of a hungry and thirsty crew.

All up 36 games of rugby will be played over the weekend and when you consider these will all need refs and touches and all the other bibs and bobs it’s a logistic nightmare that somehow gets done each year.

Around The Traps is hearing that Central West look in pretty good shape to go back to back but Central Coast is not out of the picture.

The annual NSW State Championships will also be staged over this long weekend with the Under 13s in Orange, Under 14s in Dubbo, Under 15s in Maitland and the Under 18s in Coffs Harbour.

The Under 18s will be staged in the big smoke with all games to be played at St Lukes Ovals at Concord.

Unfortunately, the Under 12s at Camden was postponed due to the weather.

These all lead to a series of City v Country fixtures to be played on July 28 at Bathurst.

There’s a lot of moving parts in the whole thing so spare a thought for Ben Gregory the juniors administrator who I would say has had a few restless nights of late.

If you can’t get to the ground to support your team log on to NSW Rugby TV as most games will be streamed.

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While we’re talking about the boys from the bush young Sid Harvey has been smashing it with Eastern Suburbs colts this season and a couple of weeks back broke the club record for the most points by a single player.

Harvey, a fullback from Narrabri who was the Under 18s player of the NSW Country Championship last year, notched up 51 points against the Hunter Wildfires.

His tally included five tries and 13 conversion in what could be described as a day out.

Around The Traps reckons that looks more like a career if you take out the conversions.

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It all needs to be ticked off by Rugby Australia but the Shute Shield looks like it will get a bit of Free To Air love in the second half of the season.

Stan Sport will drop a game a week on to one of the Nine Network’s free to air channels from Round 13 onwards with the big beaches derby between Warringah and Manly or maybe even Randwick v Gordon vying for attention.

That will flow on through to the finals series which will get underway on the weekend of August 10-11

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Jot down the name James McGregor in you little black book as one to watch as the second half of the Shute Shield unfolds.

Every time that I have seen the Woodies winger go around he has impressed with not only his pace but also his rugby nous.

Aussie men’s sevens coach John Manenti has had his eye on the 19-year-old and selected him for his World Sevens Series debut in Cape Town at the end of last year.

McGregor didn’t score any tries in the Woodies win over Southern Districts at Forshaw last Sunday but he had a leading hand in a couple of them.

His ability to isolate the defence, particularly on the short side, makes him a real weapon.

McGregor’s line break numbers are pretty good too sitting at 10 and right in the mix with the very best of the best in the Shute Shield.

Yes you heard it here first!

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Not sure if this fits in with my mantra of playing rugby on a Saturday, celebrating on a Saturday night and recovering on a Sunday but there’s a push to explore staging a Shute Shield or Hospital Cup game on the sabbath.

Around The Traps has been hearing a few whispers that this could work and it would extend the coverage that Stan Sport puts together so well.

I know for sure that the Hunter Wildfires would stick their hand up for a few Sunday games which would mean that their games wouldn’t clash with the vibrant local club competition.

Might be something that needs some exploring.

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There were a few uninformed whispers on social media (surprise, surprise) that the jersey the Manly Marlins wore in their match against Northern Suburbs at Allianz Stadium was a bit loud.

But when you drill down into the details it told a great story and if anyone out there likes the look them you can get you hands on one in the special auction.

The jersey was designed by Cooper Tarleton, a proud Wiradjuri man who is sponsored by Marlins to play in the National Wheelchair Basketball League

The design gains its inspiration from the Manly and North Head Peninsula, celebrating the life-giving waterways – the beating heart of survival and culture for the Gayamagal People.

The pebbles along the jersey represent the journey of all those who have been a part of the Manly club, while the footprints represent everyone who has worn the Marlins jersey. These spiritual marks are known as our ‘Songlines’.

These jerseys are available for auction until Friday June 21 via the link:
https://www.manlyrugby.com.au/product-category/auction/

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There’s always been a link between our game and water polo but some famous fathers will be cheering on their daughters in the Australian team at the Paris Olympics next month.

Phil Kearns’ daughter Tilly is off to her second Olympics with the Stingers while former Warringah hard man John Hearn’s daughter Sienna is also in the squad.

This will be Sienna’s first Olympics.

“I’m really proud and more relieved with all the effort she put in,” Hearn told colleague Jon Geddes for the Rats Tales newsletter. “She deserved what she got, it’s unreal.”

“We said she was going to play for Australia in any sport she chose when she was about three, you can just tell when an athlete has that determination. You just saw it in her.”

The Stingers play their first game game on July 27, the first day of competition, and go through until August 10, the day before the Games end.