Graham Croker
Sydney University Football Club will have three players in the starting line-up and four on the bench when NSW Waratahs take on Queensland in the first Super 14 trial for 2009, to be played at Toowoomba on Saturday.
Prop Jeremy Tilse, inside-centre Tom Carter and winger Peter Playford have been selected in the starting XV for the trial, while second-rowers David Dennis and Will Caldwell, five-eighth Daniel Halangahu and centre Mitch Inman have been chosen on an 11-man bench.
NSW Chris Hickey has named 15 players with Super 14 experience in the 28-man squad and with the exception of Brett Sheehan, who has been named on the bench, all other Wallabies from the 2008 Spring Tour have been rested for the trial.
“Since we returned from the Development Tour of Fiji in October we’ve been working towards this match and it’s time to test our preparation in a match situation,” Hickey said. “This match is about testing our structures, but it also presents the first real opportunity for players to put their hand up for selection ahead of the Super 14.”
While the squad features a number of Junior Waratahs and club players, Sam Norton-Knight, Matt Carraro, Carter, Kurtley Beale, Caldwell, Rob Horne and Sheehan were all part of the Waratahs side in the 2008 Super 14 final and will feature in the team’s first hit-out of the season.
The squad will travel to Brisbane on Friday ahead of Saturday’s trial in Toowoomba before returning to Sydney on Sunday. The squad will then go into camp in the Hunter Valley on Tuesday, January 27, before the Waratahs’ second pre-season match against the Fiji Warriors at Newcastle’s EnergyAustralia Stadium on Friday, January 30.
