Rugby: Teen following in footsteps of Blues stars

Northland's Shelford Murray has been picked among a select group of 25 promising under-18 players who will take on the Chiefs schools team today in Auckland.

Murray, along with five other Northlanders, spent last week trialling at the Blues rugby franchise's annual development camp at St Kentigern College and has now been named part of the Blues schools team.

Murray, 17, of Te Rarawa, is a member of the Kaitaia College first XV (who have yet to play this season) and has also played for Te Rarawa in the Mangonui senior club competition (before the side withdrew due to issues with confrontation on the field).

The purpose of the camp was to provide the best secondary school players from each of the three provincial unions within the Blues franchise - Auckland, North Harbour and Northland - with an insight into the on- and off-field expectations of the game at a professional level.

The camp consisted of theoretical and practical sessions covering the NZRU development pillars (technical, tactical, nutrition, physical, mental and personal leadership).

The camp also gave provincial, franchise and national selectors another platform to continue their talent identification and selection processes for the various representative teams and high performance programmes such as the New Zealand secondary schools and provincial union academies.

Five Northland secondary school rugby players were invited to attend the Blues' secondary schools development camp - Bradley James, of Ruawai High School, Jesse Rihari, of Kerikeri High School, Jessie Chapman, of Kamo High School, Louis Ward, of Whangarei Boys' High School and Murray.

Since its inception in 2009, the Blues' schools development camp has produced numerous New Zealand secondary schools, Under-20s, ITM Cup and Super Rugby players, as well as recent All Blacks Steven Luatua and Francis Saili, who graduated from the 2009 camp.