Just days after Penrith Emus were cut from the Shute Shield competition, Penrith Junior Rugby president Chris Hicks has promised the junior association will keep rugby alive in western Sydney.

While Hicks said it was vital that a Shute Shield club was re-formed in his region eventually, the president said this week’s news wouldn’t impact operations of the successful junior association.

“Penrith Juniors is business as usual. We’ve been in contact with NSW Junior Rugby and Sydney Junior Rugby over the last few weeks to reassure everyone that we are 100% alive and kicking,” Hicks told Rugby News.

“We’ve been trying to support the senior club as much as possible, but our junior program continues as normal. Our U13s side, who were State Champions last year, look to be even stronger and we’ll be fielding a side in every ago group at the NSW Junior State Championships except for the U15s.”

Hicks added that success was nothing new for Penrith’s junior sides, who will compete at the NSW Junior State Championships over the June long weekend again this year.

“We re-founded the district in 2012 and re-affiliated several clubs back to Penrith and since then we’ve won the U12s State Championship in 2014, we won the U17s State Championship in 2015 and we won the U13s State Championship in 2017.”

Despite that success, Penrith’s colts and grade sides have struggled to be competitive in recent years, leading to Monday’s decision to disqualify the senior club from the Shute Shield competition.

“We’ve had players go on to play colts at Penrith but lots of the boys have gone on and played at Gordon, Parramatta, Sydney University, Eastwood, Southern Districts. It just depends what they think is the best option for them once they finish juniors.”

Hicks said it may need to take several years to reform a Shute Shield club in the region, the fastest growing in Sydney, but argued that western Sydney was far too big to ignore.

“There is still a lot of Subbies rugby played out here, but that is an amateur competition and although it’s a great rugby pathway, it doesn’t really give players an opportunity to go on and play professional rugby,” he said.

“I think it’s important that NSW and Australian rugby move with the times. The Shute Shield needs to include a viable and successful club in Western Sydney and I think if that happens, it will be very well supported and the club will go from strength to strength.”

NSW Rugby CEO Andrew Hore said that his organisation was in the process of creating a strategic plan for rugby in western Sydney, something Hicks said is vital.

“There has to be some strong leadership shown from NSW, Australian Rugby and the Sydney Rugby Union to not just come up with a plan, but come up with a realistic plan for western Sydney.

“We don’t have the rugby schools out here, we don’t have an independent or private school rugby pathway so we’re dependent on players coming out of our junior clubs.”

Hicks has lived his entire life in western Sydney and said rugby must capitalise on the rapid change and growth of the region by forming strategic partnerships with universities, clubs and local government.

“We can’t just look at a map, throw a dart and say, there are lots of people there, lets start a club. It won’t work. Whatever we do in the future, and it’s all up in the air, but we need to look at where Eastwood set up their new base and then maybe push further to the south west as a result of that.

“We’ve also got a new airport being built at Badgerys Creek and there is huge infrastructure being built around that in the crescent between Penrith and Cambelltown.”

Penrith will compete in the NSW Junior State Championships at various locations around NSW in early June.