Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 tournament starting this Sunday

Sixteen teams in two divisions take to Owen Delany Park in Taupo over three days on 27 and 30 September and 3 October to contest the 2015 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament.

After the successful inaugural tournament last year, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is making this a regular on the rugby calendar in order to help develop emerging talent in the Under 19s age group.

New Zealand Rugby General Manager of Rugby and former representative halfback, Neil Sorensen, said the tournament provided a pathway for emerging  players and provided them with every reason to stay in the game and aim for higher honours, such as their full Provincial Union side and NZ U20 side.

“Many of the players involved in last year’s tournament went on to higher honours, including representing New Zealand at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy."

The U19 tournament includes 14 provincial union teams, an additional Auckland B side and a Heartland Unions side.

Teams compete across two divisions (Premiership and Championship) for the Graham Mourie Cup and the Michael Jones Trophy. Each squad is made up of players who currently play club rugby in their Provincial Union and who are under 19 as at 1 January 2015.  

Three matches a day will be screened live on Sky Sports 1 and 2, whilst Wellington’s matches will be broadcast live on Hurricanes Radio at 1161AM for central region listeners or live on Tunein.com.

Teams and Rankings

The teams contesting this year’s Graham Mourie Cup Premiership (top 8) division are:
Blues: North Harbour (Ranked 1), Auckland A (2)
Chiefs: Waikato (1), Taranaki (2)
Hurricanes: Wellington (1), Manawatu (2)
South Island: Canterbury (1), Otago (2)

The teams contesting this year’s Michael Jones Trophy Championship (bottom 8) division are:
Blues: Northland (3), Auckland B (4)
Chiefs: Counties Manukau (3), Bay of Plenty (4)
Hurricanes: Hawke’s Bay (3), Heartland team (4)
South Island: Tasman (3), Southland (4)

Draws

Sunday 27 September:
1. Northland v Southland (11.05am)
2. Bay of Plenty v Hawke’s Bay (11.05am)
3. Auckland B v Tasman (1.05pm)
4. Waikato v Manawatu (1.05pm)
5. Counties Manukau v Heartland (2.40pm – TV)
6. Auckland A v Canterbury (5.05pm)
7. North Harbour v Otago (4.20pm – TV)
8. Taranaki v Wellington (6.00pm – TV)

Wednesday 30 September (semi-finals):
Michael Jones Trophy Semi-Final 1 winner match 1 v winner match 5 (1.05pm)
Michael Jones Trophy Semi-Final 2 winner match 3 v winner match 2 (2.40pm – TV)
Graham Mourie Cup Semi-Final 1 winner match 7 v winner match 4 (4.20pm – TV)
Graham Mourie Semi-Final 2 winner match 6 v winner match 8 (6.00pm – TV)

Sunday 3 October (Finals, preceded by lower ranked playoffs):
Michael Jones Trophy Championship Final (4.20pm - TV)
Graham Mourie Cup Premiership Final (6.00pm - TV)

Last year, Wellington beat Canterbury 32-21 in the final to win the inaugural Graham Mourie Cup, whilst Auckland beat Waikato 20-16 in the playoff for third and fourth and Southland beat Manawatu 26-21 to claim the Michael Jones Trophy.

Of last year’s top four Premiership teams, Wellington, Waikato and Canterbury won their recent seeding tournaments, while Auckland A were upset 9-15 by North Harbour in their final seeding encounter last weekend. This means that Canterbury and Auckland A will meet first-up in Sunday’s quarter-finals.

Defending champions Wellington face Chiefs region second seed Taranaki in their first match and Waikato will meet Hurricanes region second placed qualifier Manawatu.

Wellington co-coach Ray MacDonald said it felt like the tournament had been a long time coming, and both the players and management were looking forward to the challenge of retaining the title.

“We’re going up there with high hopes. We’ve only got three or four players with us from last year, so we’re a relatively new team, but if we play our best and concentrate on our own processes I believe we’ll be pretty hard to beat.”

MacDonald expected the tournament to be an extremely tight contest, with teams being a lot more prepared having learnt from last year’s inaugural event.

“Anything can happen in this tournament. We certainly weren’t the favourites last year, but we managed to do it.

“We’ve just been making sure the boys stay grounded, because in reality, our actual campaign is only just beginning. The seeding matches we’ve played don’t count anymore, so we just need to stay focused and concentrate on what we want to achieve.”

Waikato’s Head Coach Andrew Douglas said “We are happy with this year’s squad and know the team will be real competitors out on the field.”

“The tournament provides a great opportunity for our province’s young  players to improve their skills and continue their rugby development,” Douglas added. “It is a fantastic opportunity to test their talent against players from a similar age group and I know they are really looking forward to the challenge in Taupo.” 

Similarly, Canterbury are primed to go one better than last year and their Head Coach Mark Brown said he has a quality squad that will push hard in  this year’s tournament.
 
“We have a really exciting group of young men making up this squad.  They have all earned their place in the national squad by putting in solid performances during the qualifying tournament, and we are all really looking forward to stepping up to the next level now in Taupo,” Brown said.