The Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under 19 tournament kicks off this weekend, with 16 teams set to compete over three days at Owen Delany Park in Taupo.

Canterbury Head Coach Grant Keenan has named his 25-man squad for the tournament, which will see Canterbury take on Auckland first up on Sunday 9 September. Canterbury finished as top qualifier in the Southern Region tournament, following wins in recent weeks over Otago, Southland and Tasman. They will compete in the top eight Premiership division of the tournament for the Graham Mourie Cup. 

Keenan said the qualifying matches were an important building block towards the national tournament: "As coaches we were really impressed, not just by the results from our Southern region qualifying matches, but also the attitudes of the whole squad in working hard to secure a spot in the top eight for nationals. 

"It was a tough decision to narrow down the squad to 25 names, but this is an exceptional group of young players who we know will wear the red and black jersey with a lot of pride in Taupo. The Under 19s is a challenging tournament with New Zealand's future rugby stars on show, but this group are really embracing that challenge and we look forward to seeing what we can achieve together on the national stage this year," Keenan said. 

The last time Canterbury lifted the Graham Mourie Cup was back in 2015, when they defeated Waikato 41-35.

This year the tournament will be played on Sunday 9, Wednesday 12 and Saturday 15 September, with all matches taking place at Owen Delany Park in Taupo. The tournament is split in two divisions; the Premiership (top eight) compete for the Graham Mourie Cup, while the Championship division compete for the Michael Jones Trophy. 

For a full list of fixtures for the 2018 national tournament, visit the tournament Facebook page.  

Canterbury Under 19 team for Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament:

Josh Bokser

Finlay Brewis

Fergus Burke

Luke Donaldson

Thomas Edwards

Nick Frost

Connor Garden-Bachop

Mitchell Gibson

Sam Gilbert

Connor Gordon

Cullen Grace

Alex Harford

Finlay Joyce

Perry Karati

Coel Kerr

Shilo Klein

Matthew Letoga

Reon Lowery

Dallas McLeod

Conor McManus

Burns Mills

Fletcher Morgan

Fletcher Newell

Rico Syme

Boris van Bruchem

Article added: Tuesday 04 September 2018