Queensland’s champion Super U20s team has dominated the squad for the upcoming U20s Oceania Championships, named on Tuesday.
The Reds’ undefeated underage side has 11 players in the 29-player squad, with NSW fielding eight players, ACT five and Victoria four.
Seven of last year's World Championship squad has been included in the squad for the competition that also involves New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa.
Super Rugby and Aussie Sevens duties have also shaped the final squad, with nine players unavailable because of their tournament duties - Sham Vui (Western Force), Jordan Uelese (Melbourne Rebels), Esei Haangana (Melbourne Rebels), Izaia Perese (Queensland Reds), Sione Tuipulotu (Melbourne Rebels), Liam McNamara (Aussie 7s), Henry Hutchinson (Aussie 7s), Simon Kennewell (Aussie 7s) and Lachlan Anderson (Aussie 7s)
The Aussies will be looking to build on a series last year in which they beat New Zealand for the first time at underage level.
Australia U20s coach Simon Cron said the tournament would be another step towards June’s World Championships in Georgia.
“We had a very short national camp last week and have coached some of the basic areas we need to do well to be successful,” - Simon Cron.
“As a squad we had a chance to work on some cohesiveness in our ball skills and talk about key fundamentals around which we will base our attack and defensive systems.
“We’ll head into camp on the Gold Coast on Tuesday 25 April and we need to continue on from where we left off.
“We have to keep building on the boys’ rugby brains as well as the tactical and technical coaching.”
“There are some great boys in the group and I am looking forward to working with them more in detail over the coming weeks.”
The Oceania Rugby championship kicks off on April 28 at Bond University, with Fiji and Samoa included in the tournament for the first time.
FIXTURE
2017 Oceania Rugby U20s Championship fixtures
Round 1, Friday April 28
New Zealand vs Fiji, 5pm AEST
Australia vs Samoa, 7pm AEST
Round 2, Tuesday May 2
New Zealand vs Samoa, 3pm AEST
Australia vs Fiji, 5pm AEST
Round 3, Saturday May 6
Samoa vs Fiji, 5pm AEST
Australia vs New Zealand, 7pm AEST
SQUAD
Prop
Harry Johnson-Holmes, NSW
Harry Chapman, NSW
Vaauli Faamausili, Victoria
Dan Matthew, NSW
Hooker
Tom Horton, NSW
Efi Maafu, Queensland
Sama Malolo, Western Australia
Lock
Harry Hockings, Queensland
Angus Blyth, Queensland
Ryan McCauley, NSW
Darcy Swain, ACT
Backrow
Lachlan Swinton, NSW
Angus Scott-Young, Queensland
Reece Hewat, Queensland
Liam Wright, Queensland
Angus Allen, ACT
Scrumhalf
Harry Nucifora, Queensland
Ryan Lonergan, ACT
Theo Strang, NSW
Flyhalf
Hamish Stewart , Queensland
Jack McGregor, Victoria
Centre
Tony Hunt, Queensland
Nick Jooste, ACT
Dylan Riley, Queensland
Len Ikitau, ACT
Wing
James Ramm, NSW
Jayden Ngamanu, Queensland
Fullback
Semisi Tupou, Victoria
Jack Maddocks, Victoria
All matches of the Oceania Tournament will be streamed LIVE on RUGBY.com.au, RUGBY.com.au Facebook and Oceania Rugby YouTube.
