The state's leading touch tykes swarmed into Wollongong last weekend for the Junior State Cup.

More than 4000 young guns from all corners of the state converged for the tournament including four fired up sides from Bowral Touch.

In horrific conditions, the mud-splattered Highlands teams did the region proud with most local side's forced to field under-age players.

"All these kids did really well and showed how keen they were by not missing a training session and playing in such bad conditions," Bowral Touch's Jackie Meyers said.

"It's just great to see juniors develop like they have and a lot of the seniors should take credit for putting time in with them.

"It's really starting to filter down.

"Some of the teams we were playing against had tryout squads of 100 where we had only about 15."

The Highlands was also represented by seven referees at the tournament including three youngsters.

Thomas Meyers, Nick McGloughlin and Nick Fisher were the young men in the middle for up to 11 games each in the two day competition.

The Bowral under-10s made it a lightning start for the locals, with the Mark Knight-coached team topping their pool and were unluckily bailed out by the powerful Penrith side in the semi's.

In a solid all-round effort, Ryan Knight, Nathan Sams, Matt Thorpe, Ricky Garard, Dan McLaughlin and Nick Simpson all played well.

The valiant under-10 girls might not have won a game at the tournament but they showed plenty of grit to hold their own against much bigger and older rivals.

Best for the girls were Zoe Elliott, Sasie Economis, Millie Murchie, Elly Meyers, Eilish Maloney and Gillian Court.

The boys 12s managed to claim two of their six pool matches, showing solid improvement each time they took to the field.

Billy Economos and Angus Elliott both shone for the Highlands lads.

The under-14 girls were another Bowral team to perform beyond expectations, only losing one game to finish second in their group.

The tight-knit group will be a future force with the nucleus of the side still in the 14s age group for two more years.

"The kids were just so determined and they ran all day," Ms Meyers said.

"You couldn't get an adult team to put in as much effort as all these kids did."

The senior referees attending the tournament were Darren Meyers, Brian Smith, Mick Hamilton and Natalie Dare who earned her level three badge.