New Zealand Schools 2016 squad announced

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New Zealand Schools 2016 squad announced

Players from 25 secondary schools have been selected for a three-day development camp at AUT Millennium in Auckland on 24 September. 

Following this camp selectors will name the 2016 New Zealand Schools and New Zealand Schools Barbarians sides to play Australia and Fiji Schools next month.

The players attending the development camp are:

New Zealand Rugby’s High Performance Talent Identification Manager Matt Sexton congratulated all those selected.

“We’re really pleased with the calibre of talent to choose from this year which provided us with some tough choices. This is exactly what you want when selecting a squad,” he said.

“We’ve got a really well balanced squad with good depth across all positions so we’re confident we’ll be able to field two very competitive teams at the end of the upcoming camp.

“It’s great to see a core group of players from last year returning to the squad – Tim Hogan, Caleb Clarke, Xavier Numia and Flynn Thomas, along with returning 2015 New Zealand Barbarians Schools players in Ajay Mua, Ciarahn Matoe, Tim Farrell and Brayden Iose. Their experience will certainly be of huge value.

“It’s also really pleasing to see so many schools represented which underlines how healthy the secondary school game is in this country. This bodes well for the future of the game here,” Sexton said.

Unavailable due to injury; Otago Boys’ High School prop Sione Asi (knee) and King’s College midfielder, Bailyn Sullivan (knee).

2016 New Zealand Schools schedule

3 October 
New Zealand Barbarians Schools v Australia Schools
NZ Schools v Fiji Schools
Mt Albert Grammar, Auckland

8 October
New Zealand Barbarians Schools v Fiji Schools
New Zealand Schools v Australia Schools
Auckland Grammar, Auckland.