Nearly half of the trialists were part of the New Zealand U19 squad who beat South Africa U19 31-7 to win the IRB U19 World Championship title in Belfast last season, including captain Chris Smith, flanker Luke Braid, fly-half Daniel Kirkpatrick and full-back Trent Renata.
The players who are involved in the Super 14 were not considered for the trial camp, which takes place at the Rotorua Boys’ High School from 7th-12th April 2008 and will include a trial match on the Wednesday.
New Zealand U20’s 26-man squad for the IRB Junior World Championship where they are the top seeds in Pool A and will face Argentina U20, Ireland U20 and Tonga U20 at Cardiff Arms Park will be announced at the completion of the camp.
“We have monitored players’ progress since our first camp in December,” explained Rennie. “That camp was important because players were each given an action plan detailing the strong parts of their game as well as areas they needed to work on prior to next week’s camp. The Rotorua camp offers players one last chance to push for national selection.”
A number of the NZRU’s leading resource coaches will also be attending the camp to offer specialist coaching to the players, including skills coach Mick Byrne, scrum coach Mike Cron and former All Blacks Simon Culhane and Jeff Wilson.
| NZ U20 Triallists | IRB U19 2007 | |
| Ben Afeaki | Yes | |
| Rodney Ah You | Yes | |
| Samual Anderson-Heather | – | |
| Kurt Baker | – | |
| Luke Braid | Yes | |
| Matthew Cameron | Yes | |
| Derek Carpenter | – | |
| Ryan Crotty | Yes | |
| Thomas Crowley | Yes | |
| Ash Dixon | Yes | |
| Paea Fa’anunu | Yes | |
| Piula Fa’asalele | – | |
| Kaipati Gaualofa | – | |
| Roy Griffin | – | |
| John Hardie | Yes | |
| Michael Harris | – | |
| Grayson Hart | – | |
| Joe Hill | – | |
| Mark Jackman | – | |
| Daniel Kirkpatrick | Yes | |
| Matthew Luamanu | – | |
| Quentin MacDonald | Yes | |
| James Marshall | – | |
| Sam Monaghan | – | |
| Simon Munroe | – | |
| Ash Parker | – | |
| Michael Peterson | – | |
| Hugh Reed | – | |
| Trent Renata | Yes | |
| Peter Saili | Yes | |
| Aaron Smith | – | |
| Chris Smith | Yes | |
| Toby Smith | – | |
| Tutu Tairea | – | |
| Suliasi Taufalele | – | |
| Andre Taylor | – | |
| Matthew Todd | – | |
| Sam Whitelock | Yes | |
| Jackson Willison | Yes |
