by Brendan Bradford – 

The North Harbour Rays are close to finalising their 33-man squad for the inaugural National Rugby Championship which kicks-off in four weeks.

Head coach Geoff Townsend expects “around 23” of the 33 contracts will be signed at a light training session on Wednesday night. The squad will largely consist of players from table-topping Manly and fourth placed Warringah, but there was a concerted effort by the board and selectors to have a fair representation of Gordon and Northern Suburbs players, too, says Townsend.

“It’s a mix of all the clubs and we’ve got a blend of every team in there and that’s something the club wanted to do,” Townsend told Rugby News.

“It’s not a token gesture though, the guys have earned the right to be there. It’s going to be a team for the club players and we’ve got two of the top sides in the premiership and two of the developing sides too, so we’ve got a good core of players we can choose from.”

With limited preparation time between the Shute Shield and NRC seasons – the club rugby Grand Final is just a week before the NRC begins – getting the squad finalised and the players prepared is essential.

“We hope Manly and Warringah go deep into the finals and if that happens we’re only going to get those guys back for a week before we face Melbourne and with them pretty much being a Super Rugby team, they’ll be doing preparation now,” said Townsend.

“It’s a playing field that will hopefully even itself out, and we’ve got a bit of detail to know the guys over the past few weeks, but not a lot. We’re sorting out the contracts now and we’ll contract about 23 of those tonight (Wednesday) and in another week and a half we’ll make a decision on a few positions of conjecture.”

The Rays named an initial training squad three weeks ago with four Shoremen, five Highlanders, 11 Rats – including an entire backline – and 13 Marlins players. Rugby News understands Norths would have had a higher representation, but several players were scooped up early by the Country side.

Judging by the initial squad, Townsend and assistant coaches Haig Sare, Damien Cummins and Michael Lipman will field a strong outfit. There are players with Super Rugby and overseas experience, a Ken Catchpole Medal winner, flying outside backs, no-nonsense forwards and plenty of club rugby talent looking to make it at the next level.