Rugby union will officially return to Tenterfield this Saturday with three games.
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The Tenterfield Bumblebees' new alliance with the Glen Innes Elks in the New England Rugby Union competition will see the two clubs share home fixtures with round one allocated to the Bees.
Third grade, women's and first grade matches will be played at Federation Park against the Barbarians.
Bees president Jeremy Phipps said their club is still short on numbers but linking up with Glen has definitely helped them and they are "looking good."
"We have eight or nine this week for Tenterfield," he said.
"With Glen surplus players we will have a strong side.
"Hopefully it benefits Glen with keeping their fringe players interested in playing rugby."
It is definitely benefitting us a lot to hopefully build ourselves back up.
- Jeremy Phipps
Phipps said it has been a bit of a task in the off-season to try and make the new connection work.
"Looking forward to the season kicking off, hopefully it all works out," he said.
"I think there is a lot of apprehension and confusion about how it is going to work, it is not going to be easy but it is the only way that we are going to be able to stay alive.
"It is definitely benefitting us a lot to hopefully build ourselves back up."
It also means a longer day out and more rugby action, including women's for the first time.
"Three games on one day is a lot better than one game of rugby," Phipps said.
"It is the first time, as far as I know, in a long time that we have had three games of rugby played on one day, other than our trial matches that we have played.
"We have got two or three girls playing with Glen which is good. Hopefully from that we can build our own numbers as well."
The third grade game begins at 12.50pm. The women's commences at 2.15pm while the second grade game starts after at 3.15pm.