On Sunday 14 August and Monday 15 August over 120 promising young indigenous Rugby players gathered in Tullebudgera, Queensland to take part in the 2011 Santos Indigenous Under 16s Championships.
Under the watchful eye of Qantas Wallabies prop James Slipper and Classic Wallabies, Lloyd McDermott, Gary Ella and Lloyd Walker, the indigenous stars of the future battled it out over two exciting days of competition, with Southern Queensland emerging victors 36-8 over Southern NSW/ACT in the Final.
Southern QLD flyer Eric Blair scored two tries in the decider, as the Southern QLD side finished the 2011 championships undefeated, following wins over Northern NSW, Northern Territory and Southern NSW/ACT.
Fullback Laybutt, inside centre Schafer, winger Adidi-Nixon, and halfback Fisher also touched down for tries in the decider, with Laybutt and teammate Anderson slotting two conversion each.
In the 3v4 playoff, Northern QLD defeated Northern NSW 24-10 in a match that saw fullback Joshua Bowen snatch a double in the one-sided affair.
While in the 5v6 play-off Combined States had took little trouble in knocking off Northern Territory 22-5 with substitute Davis Green bagging a hat-trick for Combined States in the 4-tries-to-1 victory.
At the conclusion of the 2011 Championships, a National Under 16s squad was named to compete at the National Under 16 Division 2 Championships.
There was a good spread of players selected for the national side with each competing side contributing at least one player to the national squad.
As well as competing in the National U16 Division 2 Championships the group will head across the ditch, for a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in New Zealand while the Rugby World Cup is on.
As part of the tour to New Zealand the National Indigenous team will travel to Wellington, where they will be guests of the Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club playing two games against local teams.
The team will also learn from some of the best in the world thanks to the opportunity to train with the Wallabies as well as watch the Australians do battle against the USA in their final pool match.
Final standings and complete results follow along with the National U16 Indigenous Team name to compete in the upcoming National U16 Division 2 Championships.
The National U16 Indigenous Team:
TBA
2011 STANDINGS
1. Southern QLD
2. Southern NSW/ACT
3. Northern QLD
4. Northern NSW
5. Combined States
6. Northern Territory
DAY 1 RESULTS
Sunday 14 August
Match 1 Northern NSW 15 (Widders-Leece 2, Hoskins-McInally tries) def Northern Territory 14 (Ambrum, Keeple tries; Bridges 2 cons)
Match 2 Southern NSW/ACT 36 (Hammond 2, Dixon, Stewart, Milgate, Wilson tries; Simon 3 cons) def Combined States (Green 2, Bickey tries)15
Match 3 Southern QLD 40 (Blair, Anderson, Schafer, Bennett, Dodd, Misi tries; Anderson 4, Bennett cons) def Northern NSW 0
Match 4 Northern QLD 33 (Bowen 2, Cummins, Lui, Richards tries; Bowen 4 cons) def Combined States 17 (Ashwork 2, Green tries; Collins con)
Match 5 Southern QLD 48 (Schafer 3, Adidi-Nixon 2, Blair 2, Bennett tries; Sandow-Fischer 3, Laybutt cons) def Northern Territory 0
Match 6 Southern NSW/ACT 26 (Dixon 2, Currie, Whiting tries; Simon 3 cons) def Northern QLD 17 (Bowen 2, Huet tries; Bowen con)
DAY 2 RESULTS
Monday 15 August
5 v 6 Combined States 22 (Green 3, Phiilips tries; Williams con) def Northern Territory 5 (Ambrum try)
3 v 4 Northern QLD 24 (Bowen 2, Kaur, Richards tries; Bowen 2 cons) def Northern NSW 10 (Buchanan, Porter tries)
1 v 2 Southern QLD 36 (Blair 2, Laybutt, Schafer, Adidi-Nixon, Fisher tries; Anderson 2, Laybutt cons) def Southern NSW/ACT 8 (Hammond try; Simon pen)