Kitchener named in Aussie tour team

Worcester Warriors rising star Graham Kitchener has been named in the England Under-18s squad to travel to Australia in August for a Summer Development Tour.

Lock Kitchener is part of a 32-man squad will contest four games over three weeks including a match against the Australian Schools at Ballymore in Brisbane.

The squad will be primarily based at the Sydney Academy of Sport and will play the Australian Rugby Union Northern Territory Institute of Sport, New South Wales Combined High Schools and Australian Schools A in development games before taking on Australia Schools in an international test match at the end of the tour.


The squad is comprised predominantly of this year’s England Under-18s Six Nations side that defeated France, Scotland and Ireland. Only a narrow defeat to Wales saw England fail to complete a clean sweep.


Jim Mallinder, RFU National Academy Head Coach, will be joined on the coaching team by fellow National Academy Coach Simon Hardy and Chris Kibble. Both Hardy and Kibble coached the Under 18s Six Nations squad this season.


Conor O’Shea, Director of the Rugby Football Union’s National Academy, said: “This is a tremendous development opportunity for some of our best young players and it will allow them to gain experience in a different environment and to test themselves against their Southern Hemisphere counterparts at an early stage in their development.


“Although a development tour, this group will be looking to target the final match against the Australian Schools. I am sure we will be seeing a number of these players in the years to come both within the Guinness Premiership and in the international arena.”


Warriors Academy Manager Andrew Stanley said: “Graham is someone we have high hopes for in the Academy – we are delighted with his call-up.


“He has been one of the outstanding performers for the England Under-18 group and considering he has another year left at school he has done very well.


“Graham has played Under-19 rugby for us this season and we are looking forward to even more performances for Warriors next year.”


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