The 2013 National Under 16 Championship starts on Monday 30th September at St. Ignatius College, Riverview. After rigorous selection trials, the cream of Australian Under 16 year old rugby talent will fight for the coveted Rod McQueen Shield.
This tournament is an important stepping stone on the ARU Pathway to Gold, and, who knows, one of these boys may even be the scorer of the final try that helps to bring Bill back from RWC 2019 in Japan.
The Championship provides the first taste of open national level competition and state/territory representation for Australia’s best U16 year old rugby players. It would be naive to think that the annual assembly of the best U16 year old rugby players was simply about competing for their state team to win national bragging rights.
One of the real reasons for the championship, and the high level of ARU involvement and funding, is that it allows their high performance staff to view and asses the players respective to each other. There will also be scouts from both rugby and that other code, along with interested club and school coaches and coaching directors. Some will be there with their chests swelling with pride, hoping that their boys perform to their potential; others will be on shopping or intelligence gathering missions.
Each state and territory team has a process for selection that includes club and school level, affiliate and association and regional and state representative trial programs. Despite best efforts to make the selection process as transparent and objective as possible, the announcement of the NSW and Queensland teams seldom occur without someone complaining about selector incompetence or bias.
In the case of QLD and NSW players where there are multiple teams representing the state, the boys will also have the opportunity to prove that the selectors decisions were either right or wrong in whatever State team they were selected in.
The Championship schedule includes an intensive match schedule as well as important off field sessions for players, coaches, managers, medical staff and referees to ensure that the week is a quality introduction to the levels of performance and development required to play, coach, manage and referee at the highest levels.
The purpose the Championship is to provide an effective quality platform for:
a) the selection and development of each state/territories talented young players, coaches, managers, referees and other officials;
b) the recruitment and retention of players, coaches, referees, managers and other officials;
c) the benchmarking of talented U16 players;
d) assisting with the improvement of playing standards and development of the game in all participating states/territories.
As well as battling it out for three trophies – the Rod McQueen Shield (Div1 Champions), Nick Farr-Jones Shield (Div 1 Plate Champions) and John Eales Shield (Div 2 Champions) – the U16 National Championship provides the best U16 players in Australia with the chance to participate in education programs and experience a residential-style camp with their peers from across Australia.
The Championship crown a national champion team at Division 1 and Division 2 level as well as recognizing outstanding player contributions to team performance (‘Best Team Man’).
Many players from the Championship will graduate to higher level development and representative programs. As the Under 16 cohort changes from year to year with very few players attending more than one tournament, direct comparisons of results and performances from year to year are difficult to make, but they do provide an indication of relative strengths at Open Schoolboy level.
Players that have competed at the ARU National U16 Championship and graduated to the Wallabies include:
Kurtley Beale, Berrick Barnes, Quade Cooper, Ben Daley, Anthony Faingaa, Saia Faingaa, Will Genia, Rob Horne, James Horwill, Lloyd Johansson, Peter Kimlin, Pat McCabe, Ben McCalman, James O’Connor, David Pocock, Tatafu Polota-Nau , Rob Simmons, James Slipper, and Lachlan Turner.
Teams competing at the National U16s Championship are:
Championship – Division 1 (2012 Champion Queensland Red)
Pool A: NSW Schools; QLD White; Western Australia; NSW Country
Pool B: QLD Red; Sydney Juniors; Victoria; ACT Brumbies
Championship – Division 2 (2012 Champion National Indigenous)
National Indigenous; South Australia ; Northern Territory; Tasmania
MATCH DAY 1 – Monday 30 September
0930 QLD Red v Victoria Oval 1 Div 1
1045 QLD White v NSW Country Oval 1 Div 1
1330 Sydney Juniors v Brumbies Oval 1 Div 1
1445 NSW Schools v Western Australia Oval 1 Div 1
MATCH DAY 2 – Tuesday 1st October
0930 Tasmania v National Indigenous Oval 1 Div 2
1015 Victoria v Brumbies Oval 2 Div 1
1045 South Australia v Northern Territory Oval 1 Div 2
1330 QLD White v Western Australia Oval 1 Div 1
1415 QLD Red v Sydney Juniors Oval 2 Div 1
1445 NSW Schools v NSW Country Oval 1 Div 1
LAY DAY – Wednesday 2nd October
MATCH DAY 3 – Thursday 3rd October
0930 Victoria v Sydney Juniors Oval 1 Div 1
1015 Tasmania v South Australia Oval 2 Div 2
1045 Western Australia v NSW Country Oval 1 Div 1
1330 QLD Red v Brumbies Oval 1 Div 1
1415 Northern Territory v National Indigenous Oval 2 Div 2
1445 NSW Schools v QLD White Oval 1 Div 1
MATCH DAY 4 – Friday 4th October
0845 Northern Territory v Tasmania Oval 2 Div 2
0900 Pool A (4th) v Pool B (4th) Oval 1 Div 1
1000 Pool A (2nd) v Pool B (2nd) Oval 2 Div 2
1020 South Australia v National Indigenous Oval 1 Div 1
1120 Pool A (3rd) v Pool B (3rd) Div 1 Plate Final Oval 2 Div 1
1140 Pool A (1st) v Pool B (1st) Div 1 Final Oval 1 Div 1
AWARDS
Rod Macqueen Shield = Winner of the Division 1 Final
Nick Farr-Jones Shield = Winner of Division 1 Plate Final (5th/6th playoff)
John Eales Shield = Winner of the Division 2
Photos by Lee Grant
