Bond University Queensland Country squad and coaches announced

Bond University Queensland Country squad and coaches announced

The Queensland Rugby Union has announced the Bond University Queensland Country squad and coaching staff for the 2017 National Rugby Championship.
 
Sixteen players have been selected from Queensland Premier Rugby, with all nine clubs represented.
 
The squad was announced ahead of the first round of Queensland Premier Rugby finals, with seven Queensland Country players in action this Sunday as Sunnybank and Wests clash in the minor semi-final, while University of Queensland and GPS will go head-to-head in the major semi-final.
 
The squad features 14 players with Super Rugby experience and 21 returning Queensland Country players from last season, with the addition of a number of new talented players including scrumhalf Tate McDermott (University of Queensland), who in just his first year out of school has already represented the Australian Men’s Sevens side. Bond University’s Tai Ford will receive his first NRC call-up at the age of 27.
 
Three capped Test players have been named, including Wallabies allocated players Stephen Moore and Eto Nabuli, along with veteran lock Rob Simmons.
 
Five Australian U20s representatives have also been named in the squad, including flyhalf Hamish Stewart and young lock Harry Hockings, who will join the Reds in 2018.

The Country squad features 35 players in total, 13 of which have ties to Queensland’s country regions.
 
Former World Cup-winning All Black Brad Thorn has been named head coach of the side for the first time and will be joined by former Queensland and Wallabies winger Paul Carozza as assistant coach, after the pair struck a successful coaching partnership with the victorious Queensland’s U20s side earlier this year.
 
Thorn and Carozza coached the Queensland U20s to their second-straight undefeated Super U20s Championship title earlier this season, and with six players from that Queensland side in the Country squad, the coaches hope to implement some of the same cultural elements that underpinned the 20s campaign.
 





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