The club decided to cancel their scheduled trip to Jindabyne after injuries, COVID, and player availability issues left them with less than 15 healthy bodies.

Boars coach Matt Ryan said he felt "flat" about the decision, but said it was the best thing for the club going forward.

"When we made the decision, the big thing for us was to put our pride to the side," he said.

"We're a very proud club, but we needed to make the decision about what's best for our season and not for our pride.

"We were all on the same wavelength that it just wasn't worth the risk for our season going forward. We'd failed to do it the week before (a heavy loss to Bungendore), and we picked up another couple of injuries that day."

Ryan said the club had faced similar situations in the past, including as recently as the end of last year, but were in the position of still having a full season ahead of it.

"We've travelled to Jindabyne in the past with only 10, but the circumstances are different now," he said.

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"Our training numbers are down due to injuries and COVID, and it's already at a point where we needed to hit the reset button.

"We still feel like we've got a good squad who can go all the way, but not if we're risking guys because of our pride.

"We've got injuries, we've already got a few blokes carrying niggles, and I could guarantee one of those guys would have wiped themselves out and missed the next few weeks if we had played.

"The positive here is that we still have time to build momentum through the back-end of the season, we just have to make the right decisions that allow us to do that."

Ryan said the recent fate of Broulee and Bermagui rugby union teams showed how hard the competition was.

"Bermagui entered the comp last year and saw the distance required to compete," he said.

"We'd love to get back to a localised comp to make it more travel friendly, but the players need to show the dedication required to be a legitimate force as well.

"We're back at home this weekend, so that's a big chance to start building momentum."