UTK

Junior Kangaroos side named to face the french: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen (Melbourne Storm) 2. Campbell Graham (South Sydney Rabbitohs) 3. Curtis Scott (Melbourne Storm) 4. Brad Parker (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles) 5. Reuben Garrick (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles) 6. Kalyn Ponga (Newcastle Knights) 7. Brodie Croft (Melbourne Storm) 8. Corey Horsburgh (Canberra Raiders) 9. Reed Mahoney (Parramatta Eels) 10. Thomas Flegler (Brisbane Broncos) 11. David Fifita (Brisbane Broncos) 12. Angus Crichton (Sydney Roosters) 13. Victor Radley (Sydney Roosters) 14. AJ Brimson (Gold Coast Titans) 15. Nat Butcher (Sydney Roosters) 16. Emre Guler (Canberra Raiders) 17. Tino Fa'asuameleaui (Melbourne Storm) 18. Paul Momirovski (Wests Tigers)

Additionally to be selected for the Australian schoolboys you do not technically have to be eligible to represent Australia internationally, just have to attend school in Australia. Hence players such as Benji Marshall have repped the schoolboys in the past.

This is not quite true with respect to the schoolboys being the best of the age group from Australia, this squad is not reflective of of the best within the U18s age group in Australia but rather the best selection of players that attend high school in Australia. This means that any kid who was a year young at school (ie finished school last year at 17) yet is still in the U18 age group is not eligible (Best example of this is the only player to play NRL from this age group - David Fifita from the broncos). Additionally no player on the top 30 of an NRL squad (As far as i'm aware) has made the trip across for example Sharks youngster Bronson Xerri was initally selected but then withdrawn for NRL pre-season commitments. This is not to say however this side isn't a good showing from Australia as all bar one of the squad has played junior representative football squad for sides affiliated with an NRL side i believe. However if you were to pick the best side from all available U18s eligible for Australia the 17 would be very different.

Official NRL profile, however seeing that picture i can empathise with your position

Mitchell is 6'4", Inglis 6'5" (as is Burgess). I think we're doing ok for size, the shortest first-team outside back for the Roosters this year was 6'3" and 101kg in Blake Ferguson

To add some Australian insight here, the squad is missing a few of the top youngsters from this particular age group. Guys from this current u18s age that made the side last year - Tanah Boyd, Shawn Blore, Kyle Schneider, Lindsay Smith, Bronson Xerri and David Fifita. Out of that group Fifita is the only one to have played NRL as of yet while Xerri is the only one included in this squad, however i have heard that Xerri may not in fact end up on tour due to NRL pre-season commitments. Outside of that Jock Madden (A Half) was player of the tournament at the national championships this year, while i believe Bradman Best is regarded as one of the brighter talents from the U17s age group.

Agreed. Manu received a lot of attention (and rightly so) for last weekends performance however Marsters didn't get much opportunity but when he did he made a fair bit of space for Maumalo. I thought Marsters was probably their best in Denver as well.

Tupou and Fusitua are world-class wingers and easily picked, more of a case could be made for Fonua over Hurrell IMO.

Yeah an extra decent half would go along way, lacking a bit of direction with a lot of one out/dummy-half running.

Vanuatu putting in a decent fight here, would be great to see a mainly domestic squad get a win over a side more heritage dominated.

SERBIA U19 SQUAD Jai Smith (Brothers, Queensland), Matija Mihajlovic, Marko Simovic (Dorcol, Belgrade), Matthew Dragisic (Canberra Raiders), Daniel Marjanovic (Kawana Dolphins, Queensland), Stevan Ivankovic, Stefan Milinkovic, Vladimir Milutinovic, Mihajlo Stojiljkovic (Partisan, Belgrade), Zane Bijorac, Zane Marolt (Queanbeyan Blues, Canberra), Ivan Andric, Marko Jakovljevic, Mihailo Tomic, Vuk Tomic (Radnicki, Belgrade), Dorotej-Dado Arnold, Uros Golubovic, Marko Jankovic, Ilija Krstic, Luka Raskovic, Marko Satev, Aleksandar Stefulj (Red Star, Belgrade), Veljko Stankovic (Tzar Dusan, Paracin) Matthew Dragisic from the Canberra Raiders was named in the Australian Schoolboys squad following the Aus schoolboys national championships last week, a handy inclusion amongst the mostly domestic squad.

Kiwis Side:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/103744354/Kiwis-forward-Russell-Packer-unlikely-to-be-part-of-Denver-test-due-to-conviction This article was a while ago but it indicated then that due to his criminal conviction Packer may have been unable to travel to america due to a previous criminal conviction. Also goes on to mention Kenny Edwards as being in a similar boat (though he was a bolter anyway), if this is in fact the case with players of similar history i'd hazard a guess that Manu Ma'u and Suaia Matagi (Also less likely anyway) wouldn't be able to participate either. Can't think of any others from NZ off the top of my head that may be strange exemptions for similar reasons.

That's an interesting perspective and you're certainly correct especially with regards to forwards there is an increasing number of non-SOO eligible PI players throughout all grades of the NRL. The flipside of this perspective however also presents an interesting thought that would contradict many of the views on this forum, this trend of bringing teenagers over from the Islands or NZ within the NRL may have done more for the strength of the International game than any other body in International RL. Players such as the aforementioned Kikau and Vunivalu (although i believe he was actually brought to NZ on an RU scholarship) had they not been scouted by NRL clubs may have remained in Fiji and possibly never had the access to the training required to develop into players of first-grade standard (sidenote: this is why the Fiji NSW Cup bid is so important). Similarly in NZ the amount of talent that would slip past the Warriors systems into either RU or RL wilderness would be much larger if clubs did not go through this process of "poaching" and development. Hence the relative dominance of Southern Hemisphere in recent international competition ironically could be somewhat attributed to the NRL and it's clubs. Obviously this contrasts with the Regression/Stagnation of tier 2 NH sides such as France/Ireland/Wales as such approaches especially with regards to young french talent do not appear to occur as frequently within the RFL system

Good enough player but in the modern NRL he would be up against it in terms of size as a backrower, in saying that there has always been great forwards make the transition from SL. The same cannot be said if he was to play as a centre.