An amateur rugby club in regional NSW is offering free registration to colts players in 2017 to ensure the club is able to compete in the first tier competition in their 70th anniversary season. Despite winning back to back Blowes Cup first grade premierships in 2015 and 2016, Central West NSW club Orange Emus were on the verge of being demoted to a second tier competition this year. With participation numbers continuing to decline, the Central West Rugby Union made a decision late last year to demote any club that couldn’t field at least a first grade, second grade and colts (U19s) team In 2017. Emus were forced to take drastic action. “We’ve gone a few years now without a colts team despite having some really great success in the higher grades,” Emus president and first grade prop Steve Fergus told Rugby News. “The feedback we had from a lot of people was that guys in that under 19s age group have just left school and are often working an apprenticeship, at Uni or in t