SOME of the most exciting rugby talent in the country will converge on Wagga this weekend for the Waganha Waagangalang Sevens.
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What started out as an experiment has exceeded expectations with 24 men's and 10 women's teams from across the country to take part in the inaugural tournament.
Wagga City Rugby Club are behind the idea, where more than $15,000 in prizemoney has helped attract some of the country's most exciting rugby sevens players.
Teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and throughout country NSW have nominated for the event, which is also expected to feature a handful of ex-NRL talent.
"It's crazy. We had a lot of interest early and it sort of just grew. Word of mouth, social media, type of thing. It's looking pretty good at this stage," co-organiser Daniel Ribot said.
"It is exciting. It is a little bit nerve-wracking, given we haven't run a competition, let alone a competition of this size. We're excited, looking forward to it."
Some 81 games of rugby will be played at Conolly Park on Saturday, with the first to get underway at 8.30am, with the main event scheduled for 6.50pm.
Wagga City will be well represented with a number of teams, while fellow Southern Inland Rugby Union (SIRU) clubs CSU, Albury, Griffith and Tumut have also entered teams.
Organisers expect the standard to be strong.
"There's all sorts of rumours circulating about former NRL players," Ribot said.
"A lot of teams that move around the sevens circuit are coming and there's some Sydney teams that have been involved in the Sydney Fijian sevens tournaments up there and are looking to use this tournament as a warm up, if you like. There's quite a few Sydney teams, at least one Melbourne team, we've got some Shute Shield teams involved.
"Sevens is one of those things where you just don't know. There are some gun teams coming from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne but anything can happen on the day and that's just the nature of sevens.
"You've got to be in it to win it and there's a lot of money on offer."
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New Wagga City coach James Beaufils will be among the Boiled Lollies contingent lacing on the boots.
He believes the concept is a brilliant opportunity to showcase the talent within the Riverina.
"It means a lot for a lot of the guys who have been around for a while, in terms of around footy out this way. Pete Little, Ben Schreiber, they're all incredibly proud and also keen to get the tournament up and running because once now we've set it up, it will kick on for the next little while," Beaufils said.
"To be honest, we've got some incredible talent at Wagga City and in the area as well so we're keen to see how we go.
"There's going to be some competitive teams. We've got a team from Lismore that apparently has NRL talent coming, we've got teams from central west, Gungahlin, there is a raft of Fijian teams that are going in unnamed or using pseudonyms, they're going to be sharp.
"We've identified that Wagga has got an unreal selection of players out here and why they don't have a tournament to identify that talent and foster it is a bit of a surprise.
"It will be good. We're just hoping people can come out and support, appreciate the talent that the community has."
Former Walabies star Glen Ella will be a special guest on the day and part of the presentations. The event will feature a welcome to country to kick off, before a bar and DJ will be in operation in the afternoon.
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