JUNIOR SPORT - Young guns shine

THE Northland under-18 rugby league team finally got a chance to show what they are made of in their first and last competition game of the season in Hopu Hopu on Saturday - but it won't be the last we'll see of them.
The under-18s were the unlucky victims of a controversial change in the national competition structure by New Zealand Rugby League this season, meaning their national provincial competition was scrapped before a ball was even kicked.
The match against a Waikato-Coastline-Bay of Plenty selection at the weekend was the Northland players only chance of competition this season, and also the only chance they had to gain selection into the Northern Districts representative team.
The Northland team took their chance with both hands, beating Waicoa Bay 30-18, and at the same time had 12 players selected into the Northern Districts squad that will begin training in Orewa next week.
They are training for a match with Auckland on September 1, which will be broadcast live on Maori Television.
Northland under-18 coach Jim Larkin said he was sure after the way the Northland boys played over the weekend that there would be several Northlanders, who would make the cut for that team.
Larkins was particularly impressed with Elroy Pure and Ryan Fish, two 16-year-old front rowers who were both selected into the Northern Districts team.
"We stuck to last year's under-18 game plan and the boys took it on because we only had a couple of training sessions under our belt."
"We knew they'd be bigger than us and they were but we were faster and we just moved them around until there were holes in their line," Larkin said.
The team were ahead 18-6 at the break and although the Waicoa Bay side recovered a little in the second spell they were still well beaten.
It was just good to see the Northland boys playing again, Larkin said.
"It's good to get them playing again, same of them were forced to go rugby this year but we've got half of them back again," Larkin said.
• The Northland players chosen for the Northern Districts u-18s are: Ryan Fish, Elroy Pure, Cruize Neho, Cody Higgins, Cody Higgins, Kene Blair, Blair Young, Kieran Wihongi, Sam Herbert, Anaru Wiki, Kauri Higginson, Jarrem Wihongi.