2019 under 20's
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BOP Selection to take on the NZ U20s in Te Puke tonight.
The Mua brothers will be going head-to-head...
Steamers coach Clayton McMillan says Bay of Plenty Rugby is starting to reap the rewards of the Bay of Plenty High Performance Program.
McMillan will coach a Bay of Plenty XV Wasps’ side against the New Zealand Under 20s at Murray Salt Stadium Te Puke tomorrow night (May 28). The hit-out is a build up towards the Under-20’s World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Argentina next month.
The home team, playing in Wasps colours, won’t be the only Bay players on the park, with five members of the NZ Under 20s team being selected from the region. Lalomilo Lalomilo, Leroy Carter, Cole Forbes, Jeriah Mua and Kohan Herbert will wear the Black Jersey when they face some of their former teammates from the Bay of Plenty Under 19s, who won the Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under 19 Tournament last year in Taupo.
McMillan, who also coaches the Maori All Blacks says it is great to see players from our various High Performance Programmes across the region getting to show their talents at a higher level.
"Our academy has been a work in progress. The fact that we got five players into the New Zealand U-20s this year and it could have been more if Kaleb Trask had not been injured is a huge testament to the program and the people involved.”
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union chief executive Mike Rogers says, the Union has been focused on developing a strong performance environment for both young male and female athletes.
"We have increased our investment in this area and worked through identifying what we believe are all the key elements to a successful program.
‘’We have fantastic facilities and have developed some very exciting partnerships such as the research work we do with the University of Waikato."
Rogers says the most important part is the world class people involved in this area.
"It is great we are now seeing the results with some of our targeted young players representing our Country. However, we still believe we have areas that need to improve so we will continue to work hard to reach the standards we are aiming for."
The Union has partnered with New World Te Puke to bring this unique event to Murray Salt Stadium so local fans can experience an exhilarating evening of national level competition in their own back yard and show their support for the NZ Under 20s squad on their journey to win their seventh World Championship title.
The match kicks off at 6.35pm, tomorrow night at Murray Salt Stadium, Te Puke. Entry is by gold coin donation with all proceeds going to Te Puke Sports Junior Rugby.
Bay of Plenty Wasps Squad:
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Tom McHugh
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Masiu Akauola
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Jonas Pomare
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Iosefa Maloney
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Stan van den Hoven
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Hugh Blake
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Ajau Mua
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Abe Papalii
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Jonty Wood
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Reece Macdonald
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Pryor Collier
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Brad Armstrong
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Dennon Robinson
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Declan Barnett
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Kaleb Trask
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Jaya More
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Apitoni Toia
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Sione Afu
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Eishin Kuwano
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Angus Baker
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Shinya Ikemachi
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Carl Perry
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Jayjay Sheung Fuk
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Joe Johnston
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Gordie Lloyd
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Brody Lam
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Pierre Pili
Game details:
Bay of Plenty Wasps vs New Zealand Under 20s
Date: Tuesday 28 May
Time: Kitchen and bar open from 5:50pm, Kick-off 6:35pm
Location: Murray Salt Stadium, Te Puke
Entry Fee: Gold coin donation -
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@ARHS said in 2019 under 20's:
So Kaleb Trask is playing against the NZ Under 20s and not for them...
I liked Clayton McMillan's loaded comment in that press release where he mentions Kaleb was unavailable for the Under 20s because of injury
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A few familiar names from the Auckland scene in there. One being long time Suburbs 10, Carl Perry.
AJ Mua hasn't quite made the jump to the pros like a few other backrowers during his time in school. I still see plenty of potential when I see him play though. Maybe openside is where he needs to be at this level.
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@Stargazer the door should have been left open for Trask for as long as possible to get him on the plane to Argentina! Surely the U20s management would have been monitoring his rehab? That is unless they didn't see him as an absolute certainty or must to have in the squad?
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Its an odd mix of players but heavily weighted to the BOP academy, with one or two old hands and even a couple of Japanese players who are over as part of their development program.
BTW, I agree with what you say about Mua but hes been getting better progressively better and is playing up a storm at club level so I'm prepared to avoid judgement until he plays a bit more at the higher level.
It should be an interesting game despite the shite weather.
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@Dice yea he certainly was the sort of player fans would flock to see! Interesting to note that he made himself unavailable for the 20s the year he was eligible due to his religious beliefs. Not the same as brother Jeriah. Hope he goes on and does well.
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@Stargazer said in 2019 under 20's:
Just read on OBU (Wellington) instagram that lock Caleb Delany has been called into the NZU20s camp as injury cover. I don't know who's injured, but it's not Taine Plumtree.
He has played the majority of the time on the blindside flank in the seven games he has played for the College Old Boys-Unversity club team
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Coach Craig Philpott said one of the key requirements heading into a tournament was getting the players connected and a big part of that had been achieved on the Gold Coast last month at the Oceania tournament. "We're a little bit underdone compared to other teams who go to the World Cup in terms of tough games which is one of the reasons we wanted to play Bay of Plenty this week, to play a Mitre 10 Cup squad and play guys that are adults and who've been playing the game for a while and are going to test us. "It was good to be able to get that hit-out under our belt compared to other teams that have had seven or eight Test matches building up to this World Cup," he said.Playing on turf, as New Zealand's Black Ferns Sevens experienced a few weeks ago, exposed the skin to turf burns and involved a lot of tape being applied to grazes. Philpott said the important thing in that regard was to look after any scrapes or grazes and to be professional in the rehabilitation from those sorts of things.The nature of the tournament had changed in more recent years. New Zealand teams dominated the event in its inaugural years because Philpott New Zealand had a better understanding of the value of such a tournament for their national side. "Teams have started to realise this is a really good launching pad for young men to play at a pretty high level then go back [home] and within a year or two they're in their national team. "So they've started to resource their teams really well and that's seen by the amount of money they're putting into their build-up to the tournament, their travelling overseas to play warm-up tournaments, that kind of thing. "What you're also seeing in the teams that are fully professional, in countries like England where all the players are in professional environments, you're starting to see those players be released a bit earlier so they can prepare with their teams and really go and have a good crack at this tournament," he said. As a result in the last six or seven years the quality of the opposition had advanced while the amount of preparation they did was complemented by the importance they put on winning the title. Like those overseas sides, New Zealand would be fielding players who have already appeared at higher levels in Investec Super Rugby or on the Mitre 10 Cup stage, but Philpott said those numbers were not as high as in recent years, although he didn't doubt more would be involved in the Mitre 10 Cup later in the year.Captain Kianu Kereru Symes, Philpott said, was an adaptable young man who had only been hooking for about 18 months, originally being a loosehead prop. He captained his Hastings Boys' High School team to the national schools championship while in his first year out of school he was in the Hawke's Bay Mitre 10 Cup playing more games than expected as a result of injury to Ash Dixon. He had grown up quickly in environment and he had taken advantage of opportunities and that would be needed in the World Cup campaign. -
@Stargazer Shit, Philpotts getting his excuses in early.
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So the Highlanders have signed some of the u/20s for next season interesting considering they need
1 TH
2 locks
3 LF’s
First five
MF
3 outside backs
I wouldn’t think there would be more than 5 or 6 in this group up to SR standard And 3 of those are at franchises already -
