Wet weather had closed grounds for the initial carnival but there was an even bigger response on Friday.

Space was at a premium at Parramore Park with around 650 participants from 21 schools using 12 grounds.

Despite the strong numbers providing some logistical challenges, NRL development officer Courtney Barratt was thrilled with how the day went.

"Originally I was struggling to figure out where we were going to put all of these kids with the fields we have and when we postponed because of ground closures I thought some teams would withdraw but we actually had more teams enter," Barratt said.

With such big numbers there was certainly plenty of support needed.

Barratt was grateful for the commitment of a number of junior referees to ensure the day could go ahead.

"We had 21 referees come across from Young, Cootamundra, Tumut, Tumbarumba as well as Wagga who were all high school kids that gave us a hand on the day,

"We honestly could not have gone ahead without them with 97 games of leaguetag and rugby league played on the day."

Sturt, South Wagga and Lake Albert Public Schools joined Henschke in progressing to the tackle finals on July 26 while South Wagga, Sturt, Lutheran and Henschke 4 qualified in leaguetag.

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