Club Rugby helping fuel the Queensland Under-20s

While many players within the Queensland Under-20s ranks have previously represented their state and country at a schoolboy level, or have already played for the Australian Under-20s, a number of players have come through to play in the inaugural Super U20s Championship this year having progressed from the Queensland Premier Colts competition.

Many current and former Queensland greats have gone onto higher honours after being first recognised at the Under-20s level in club Rugby including, Tim Horan, Ben Tune, David Croft, and current St.George Queensland Reds prop Greg Holmes, who all received the Queensland Under-20s Player of the Year award during their early careers.

Horan, one of the inaugural Queensland Rugby Hall of Fame inductees in 2013, played a full year of Premier Colts Rugby for Souths in 1988 before joining fellow Darling Downs product and centre partner Jason Little in the Premier Grade side a year later in 1989.

In 2016, the Queensland Under-20s squad features a number of players who, like Horan, have been selected after performing on the paddock for their respective clubs.

Easts Tigers flanker Liam Wright, who started in the seven jersey for the Queensland Under-20s in all four regular season matches this season, wasn’t part of the Queensland Under-20s set up in 2015. He played well for the Tigers throughout 2015 in Premier Colts and was then selected for the North v South Under-19 Colts trial game at the tail end of 2015. The North v South game is used as a selection tool for the Queensland squad following the culmination of the Premier Rugby season, seeing players selected for either team depending on which side of the Brisbane river their clubs are located.

In the backs, the Sunnybank duo of Fred Dorrough and Liam McNamara progressed through to the Queensland Under-20s squad following strong performances for the Dragons throughout 2015 in Premier Colts.

Dorrough, who has captained the Queensland side throughout the Super U20s competition, believes that his full season of club Rugby in 2015 helped better prepare him for representative honours.

“Playing Premier Colts last year really helped me develop a hunger to do well and to prove to selectors that I was a good choice,” Dorrough said.

“Club Rugby was also very different to school Rugby, it was a bit of a reality check and there were a few lessons learnt.”

While Dorrough didn’t represent the Queensland Under-20s in 2015, he was part of the wider squad and took part in pre-season training and he took a lot if what he learnt last year back into club Rugby.

“I learnt a lot from the Under-20s program last year, especially the professional approach required and I took that back to club Rugby and that benefits players on and off the field.

“I’m a better player now having spent a full season with Sunnybank last year, I learnt a lot about personal preparation and doing my own video analysis without the direction of the coach which has been really beneficial.”

With the Queensland Under-20s program culminating with the Super U20s final at Ballymore this Sunday against the Melbourne Rebels U20s, players will begin to return to their respective clubs over the coming weeks and players will take their learnings from their Super U20s experience and transfer their acquired knowledge to the grassroots level of the game.

The Queensland Under-20s will host the Melbourne Rebels U20s in the Super U20s Championship final this Sunday, 3 April, at Ballymore. Entry to the match is free, kick-off at 2:00pm AEST. The match will also be live streamed via www.redsrugby.com.au.