Rugby: Youngsters to work with league royalty

Whangarei Boys' High School's Judah Andrews, with ball, has been selected in the initial 24-man Adam Blair XIII. Photo / John Stone

Twenty four young Northland rugby league players have earned themselves the chance to be trained by ex-Warriors' assistant coach Tony Iro as part of the Adam Blair XIII.

Iro, who is also New Zealand Rugby League's high performance manager, will take the secondary school XIII for an open session ahead of their match against the Warriors Development side - which acts as an curtain raiser for the RLN Premiership opener between Hikurangi and Moerewa on March 29 in Hikurangi.

The 24-strong squad that Iro will take was selected on Sunday at a trial at Bay of Islands College, which left Adam Blair XIII coach Benson Selwyn impressed with what skills were on offer.

With a total of 40 hopefuls taking part, Selwyn said he thought the squad would be competitive.

"You can really see how the quality of the NorthTec Adam Blair Trophy is growing year on year," Selwyn said.

"We've got a competitive squad here."

Selwyn, who was the successful coach of the Northern Swords 17s team that won four from six in the NZRL National Competition last year, agreed that Iro's visit would be helpful to the young men.

"We wanted to bring in Tony to help these boys prepare. As High Performance Manager for NZRL, Tony knows what skills are necessary to compete at this level.

"We have a bunch of natural talent - we just need to get the boys up to speed with the technical skills at this level." Selwyn said of the session which was going to held on Sunday.

Making up the Adam Blair XIII was nine schools - of the 10 involved in the Adam Blair Trophy which saw Dargaville High School missing out on getting anyone in the squad - before seeing the squad chopped down to 20 after this weekend's camp at Okaihau College.