By PETER JESSUP
The New Zealand A side to play New South Wales Country at North Harbour next month is a good mix of youth and experience with old heads including captain Steve Buckingham and prop Ben Valeni, plus four Warriors development players.
Some of the squad may meet Country twice in
a week, for Auckland at Ericsson Stadium No 2 at 7.30pm on Tuesday, then again for New Zealand A on Sunday, July 4.
The Auckland team is to be named by the ARL only the day before the game and may include players selected for the New Zealand A team.
Country are touring with an under-18 representative team who will play curtainraisers against Auckland under-18 at Ericsson and Wellington under-18 at North Harbour.
The Wellington under-18s have held the national junior competition Kiwi Cup title for the past two years and the Auckland under-18 side will be selected from the region's two Kiwi Cup teams.
Those players will probably form the bulk of the Junior Kiwis to play the touring England under-18 side later this year.
The Junior Kiwis will again be coached by Tony Benson from the Hibiscus Coast Raiders, with Wellington NJC coach Leighton Karawana as assistant and co-selector.
Nine other players have been placed on stand-by to cover potential injuries arising from round nine of the competition or the Auckland representative game against Country on Tuesday.
The squad
Daniel Floyd (Hibiscus Coast Raiders), Karl Johnson (North Harbour Tigers), Paul Fisi'iahi (Otahuhu-Ellerslie), Ricky Henry (Marist-Richmond Brothers), Rowan Baxter (Mt Albert Lions), Steve Buckingham (c) (Mt Albert Lions), Aoterangi Herangi (Counties-Manukau Jetz), Kurt Cawdron (Marist-Richmond Brothers), Andrew Auimatagi (Canterbury Bulls), Shannon Stowers (Hibiscus Coast Raiders), Sam Wallace (Canterbury Bulls), Henry Turua (Marist-Richmond Brothers), Frank-Paul Nuuausala (Otahuhu-Ellerslie), Marcus Perenara (Marist-Richmond Brothers), Chris Newton (Canterbury Bulls), Lee Tamatoa (Glenora Bears), Ben Valeni (Glenora Bears)
