The USA Men’s Junior All-Americans (USA U20s) will take on Canada’s Under-20s on May 23 and 26 in Canada. Thirty-two players headed north last week and are currently underway with preparations for the first match on Wednesday (May 23, 2012).
The JAAs will play the at Shawnigan Lake School (Shawnigan, B.C.) on May 23 and at the Canadian Center for Rugby Excellence in Langford, B.C on Saturday May 26.
The All-Americans will use the Canada tour as a tune-up before the Junior World Rugby Trophy - an eight-team international U20s tournament featuring the future stars of international rugby from the USA, Canada, Chile, Russia, Georgia, Japan, Tonga, and Zimbabwe – that will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 18-30.
Eighteen JAAs hail from the collegiate ranks with the remainder playing men’s club rugby. Four of the collegiate players took part in the USA Rugby Men’s College National Championships this past weekend and looked very sharp against the competition.
Angus MacLellan’s team, Davenport University, beat San Diego State (of which fellow JAA Kalei Konrad was a part) in the DI-AA National Championship and a day earlier, took out Dartmouth (Madison Hughes’s team) in the semifinal.
Head Coach, Scott Lawrence, will use the tour to fine-tune systems and also allow the team to grow in game situations. Camps were held in various locations throughout the country this spring and last winter, giving the coach an opportunity to install some structures and the pre-JWRT tour will let the team put it all together against their North American rival, Canada.
USA Junior All-Americans Pre-JWRT Tour Squad
Player (Club)
Tanner Barnes (Central Washington)
Nick Barrett (Spearhead Academy)
Niklas Boyer (Cal)
Pierce Dargan (Trinity College – Dublin)
Iniki Famausili (Glendale Raptors)
Cameron Falcon (Louisiana State)
Alex Goff (Arkansas State)
Henry Hall (Auckland University)
Brendan Hardiman (San Francisco Golden Gate)
Madison Hughes (Dartmouth)
Casper Huizenga (Kutztown)
Pacefika Iosia (Belmont Shore)
Kalei Konrad (San Diego State)
Sione Letoi (Tempe)
Angus MacLellan (Davenport)
Will Magie (Leeds University)
Kingsley McGowan (St. Mary’s College – California)
Daniel Metcalf (Penn State)
Manu Moala (Titans – Hawaii)
George Naufahu (San Mateo)
Tim O’Hara (Santa Clara)
Aladdin Schirmer (Central Washington)
Zach Siemens (Spearhead Academy)
Khrys Speed (Bedford Academy)
Alexander Taefu (Tempe)
Noah Tarrant (Oceanside Hurricanes)
So’e Tatafu (Snake River)
Mike Teo (Belmont Shore)
Glen Thommes (Delaware)
Vei Tomasi (Oakland Warthogs)
Ekaptelisio Veamatahau (Spearhead Academy)
Travis Whitlock (Back Bay)
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