No fewer than five Waikato University students have been getting an education of a different kind in Mount Maunganui this week.
All five University rugby club members - props Tau Koloamatangi and Atunaisa Moli, hooker Hame Faiva and backs Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown - have joined Hautapu loose forwardand Mitchell Joseph and Hamilton Marist lock/loose forward James Tucker at the Junior All Blacks camp ahead of next week's IRB Junior World Championship.
Faiva returns after being part of last year's under-20 squad while Tucker and Lienert-Brown have put their hands up with strong performances on the road back from injury.
With the tournament close at hand most of the training centred around learning patterns of phase play, restarts and set pieces.
Kolomatangi, who along with Moli and Faiva helped University get off to a rollicking start to this season's Waikato premier competition, was clearly enjoying being surrounded by his club mates ahead of the side's final warm-up match against Chiefs Development.
"This is my first time in a national team, it's been pretty good so far. We're learning about professionalism and recovery along with all the boys so it's coming out good," Kolomatangi said.
"It's great exposure for the club, especially for some of the young players here.
"There's five of us from the University club and it's good to be playing together.
"Some of us were playing for the club last year and then a couple more have come up from Christchurch, so it's a good mixture."
It has been a great start to the year for the club, which still leads the premier competition despite the unavailability of a number of players over the last month.
"We set some good goals at the beginning of the year and those things were achievable. It was a bit different from last year because we had different coaches, but we are coming along well."
