New South Wales Rugby

Grey and Freier to lead 30 man squad to Argentina

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Wednesday, 22 September 2004
NSWRU Media Unit

Wallabies Nathan Grey and Adam Freier will head up the first Waratah Development tour in seven years when New South Wales plays four matches against Argentine provincial sides in next month.

The Waratahs will depart Sydney on October 14 before playing Salta, Tucuman, Cordoba and Buenos Aires then return home on October 31.

"I made my NSW debut on the last tour to the U.K in 1997 and it's exciting to now lead the Waratahs on this trip to Argentina," said Grey.

"I remember making my debut with Scott Staniforth on that tour seven years ago and it was a really good environment to bring new guys into the fold."

Vice-captain Adam Freier said the tour is an opportunity to grab with both hands.

"Our 2005 season starts with this tour and we have some tough matches ahead," said Freier.

"There will be a lot of responsibility on Nathan and the rest of the senior players to make sure we have a good tour and get the best possible value out of the two weeks."

Head Coach Ewen McKenzie said a lot of the names in the 30-man squad won't be easily recognisable.

"We've looked long and hard to arrive at this squad and that includes the Colts Competition," said McKenzie.

"A lot of these selections would not have been possible without the cooperation of the club coaches and it was their input that helped enormously in fine-tuning our decision making."

"We are taking nine Waratahs who played Super 12 this year, and three of those are Wallabies, but the rest have had limited experience at state level if any at all."

"This is a chance for the new players to show their worth and it's up to our senior players to provide the environment to allow that to happen."

McKenzie said Argentina will provide the type of Rugby that many players rarely face.

"Argentina is a tough place to play Rugby and we want these players to experience that sort of Rugby outside the pressures of Super 12 where it's very hard to introduce new players."

McKenzie said the 30 man squad released today will be subject to medicals at the completion of the Tooheys New Cup.

"There is a lot of Rugby to come over the next few weeks and so we'll need to check if the players have survived the play-offs in one piece."

2004 HSBC WARATAHS SQUAD TO TOUR ARGENTINA

FORWARDS

Gareth Hardy (Sydney Uni)

Aaron Broughton-Rouse (Eastwood)

Benn Robinson (Eastwood)*

James Lakepa (Manly)

Adam Freier [vc] (Randwick)

Al Manning (Northern Suburbs)

Will Caldwell (Sydney Uni)

Marty Wilson (Eastwood)

Dean Mumm (Sydney Uni)*

Cameron Treloar (Warringah)*

Dwayne Haare (Randwick)*

Alex Kanaar (Sydney University)*

Lei Tomiki (Randwick)

Will Brame (Eastwood)*

Wycliff Palu (Manly)

Matt Hodgson (Manly)

BACKS

Tim Clark (Eastern Suburbs)

Chris O'Young (West Harbour)

Tim Donnelly (Eastwood)

Lachlan Mackay (Northern Suburbs)

Shaun Berne (Randwick)

Nathan Grey [c] (Manly)

Chris Siale (West Harbour)*

Morgan Turinui (Randwick)

Rex Tapuai (Randwick)

Luke Milton (Randwick)*

Nick Reily (West Harbour)*

Cameron Shepherd (Northern Suburbs)

Peter Hewat (Manly)

Ben Batger (Eastwood)*

*denotes uncapped for NSW (10 in total)

TOUR ITINERARY

Oct 14 - Depart Sydney, arrive Buenos Aires and transfer by plane directly to Salta.

Oct 16 - Game 1 v Salta, 5pm kick-off

Oct 17 - Depart Salta by bus, overnight at Tafi del Valle (5 hours)

Oct 18 - Transfer to Tucuman (2 hours)

Oct 19 - Tucuman

Oct 20 - Game 2 v Tucuman, kick-off 9.30pm

Oct 21 - Depart Tucuman by plane to Cordoba (45 min flight)

Oct 22 - Game 3 v Cordoba, kick-off 8.30pm

Oct 23 - Cordoba

Oct 24 - Depart Cordoba by plane to Buenos Aires (1 hr flight)

Oct 25 - Buenos Aires

Oct 26 - Buenos Aires

Oct 27 - Buenos Aires

Oct 28 - Game 4 v Buenos Aires, 8pm kick-off

Oct 29 - Depart Buenos Aires for Sydney

Oct 31 - Arrive Sydney

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