Charlie Radford was named in the Country under 14s following a standout weekend at halfback for his New England side at the NSW Country Junior Rugby Union Championships at the University of New England last weekend.

“Charlie is only pint sized, but he has a lot of talent and got the nod, which was great,” New England Junior Rugby Union president and championships organiser John Beynon said.

Two other New England youngsters also left their mark on the weekend.

Benji Marshall and Leon Kelly picked up encouragement awards in the under 13s and 14s respectively.

More than 2500 people packed into Consett Davis playing fields at UNE over the two days of the championships.

“There was close to 2000 spectators alone and almost 600 kids playing,” Beynon said.

“It was an awesome sight to see so many people there.”

New England Rugby is also receiving rave reviews for their running of the weekend.

“The feedback from Country Rugby has been on par with the best carnival hosted ever,” Beynon said.

“They were amazed with how seamlessly everything was run.”

While results were hard to come by for the three New England sides, Beynon said they weren’t expected to compete with the huge NSW rugby nurseries.

“We struggle with depth and our squads can’t compete with other zones who are choosing from up to 200 players for one team,” he said.

The under 14s achieved the best result, finishing seventh and were the only New England side to win a match over the weekend. The under 12s and 13 both finished eighth.

“Our 13s were close in two games and just got rolled against Central North,” Beynon said.

“They would have desperately loved to win that one. Our 14s got a win against one of the coastal sides.”

The weekend was also extremely profitable for New England Rugby, with Beynon reporting the carnival raised $17000 for rugby in the region.