Wellington Centurions U21s representative games coming up

The 2015 representative season is just around the corner, with several teams playing matches in various Hurricanes region competitions including the Centurions U21s who will be competing in this year’s Heartland region RDO Championship competition.

This will be the first time in many years that there has been a WRFU Age Grade U21 Representative side. The resurrection of this team has been driven by the WRFU RDO group and the Centurions Rugby Club.

The RDO Group sees the U21 Grade as means to keep college leavers involved in the game for two to three years, to assist players who physically develop later, and at the same time, produce future Premier players, who will hopefully go on to play 50-100 games for their Clubs.

The team has a good programme, playing in the RDO Shield Competition, where they will play Development Teams from Whanganui, Wairarapa Bush, Horowhenua-Kapiti, and also Wellington Maori Development. During their bye week, the team will play the HOBM Academy, with also the opportunity to play against the Centurions 85 kg representative team as their finale. The Centurions U85kg team is also hoping to finalise some representative fixtures, which will be announced soon.

The Centurions Club will be providing financial support, plus coaching and managerial experience to run the programme, alongside two RDOS and a Manager from three different Clubs.

This newly resurrected team is an opportunity to highlight the talent throughout all of the clubs in the U21 competition, and provides a stage for “late developers” to show what they have to offer, explained Coach Mo Mackey.

“Team selection has been a bit of a balancing act, with every club that nominated players having at least one member in the team,” said Mackey. “Teams finishing higher up the table also have more players, which we’ve attempted to balance out.”

“Having watched a lot of games, we expect to put a formidable team together to compete, against what we feel, will be much bigger and experienced players. A big positive in selecting this team, is that a lot of players are not from Top Tier rugby Colleges; we have players from Heretaunga, Onslow, Newlands, Aotea, Wainui, Hutt Valley High School and Tawa."

The final make-up of the U21 Centurions squad will be made following the Colts Finals this coming weekend.

The U21 Centurions Management is: Mo Mackey-Coach (Centurions Club), Scott Crichton-Coach (Centurion Club Life Member), Duncan Domett-Coach (RDO,Wellington Football Club U21), Steve So'oialo-Coach (RDO,Tawa Rugby Club U21), Nigel Hughes-Manager (Centurions Club), James Maoate-Manager (Norths Rugby Club U21)

Game Schedule

• Saturday 22nd August v Maori Development Petone Rec 12.30pm 
• Saturday 29th August v Whanaganui Cooks Gardens 12.30pm 
• Saturday 5th September v Wairarapa Bush Petone Rec 12.30pm 
• Saturday 12th September v HOBM Academy TBC 
• Saturday 19th September v Horowhenua Kapiti Levin Domain 12.30pm 
• Saturday 26th September v Centurions 85kg TBC