LACEY LOWDOWN

The Under 23 Nationals begin in Tauranga on Wednesday. It is hard to get a handle on who will be appearing and for which Assosciation as players move more freely and readily at this age group. The Men’s competition has just one South Island entry but the Canterbury team has been dealt a severe blow on the eve of the tournament with swingman Ethan Rusbatch sustaining a serious knee injury at practice yesterday.  The team travel north with the bulk of the squad that won the Under 21 title in 2011 but they will now be relying heavily on Chris Duffy and Michael Aitken. One player not playing for the Cantabs is Inga Solofuti who is now studying at AUT and will be captaining the North Harbour team. Harbour are boosted by the return of Isaac Fotu  and with Tall Blacks trialist Marco Alexander in their ranks they should start as one of the favourites.

If, as reported Reuben Te Rangi turns out for his home association Counties then they, with the Ili brothers in the back court will be a handful. Auckland will have Derone Raukawa and Samuel Everett helping their cause and we can expect Waitakere West to be in the mix come finals time as they have the powerful forward trio of Duane Bailey, Tohi Smith-Milner and Mark Kelly at their disposal. The fifth team from Auckland are Hibiscus Coast who will have a solid team led by Ben Fraser.

Waikato will have towering centre Alex Schipper as well as a number of Pistons bench players including swingman Anamata Haku. Their near neighbors Rotorua are coached by Jeff Green so we can expect them to be competitive and the same can be said of Hawkes Bay who have NBL player Alonzo Burton leading their effort.

Porirua expect to have newly capped Tall Black Jordan Ngatai leading their title bid but little is known about  Wellington, the other entry from the capital. However, if they turn up with the Hutt Valley team that won this year’s Under 19 title they will be seriouis contenders. Hosts Tauranga will want to put up a good show in front of their home fans but a top eight finish might be the best they can hope to achieve.

The tournament begins on Wednesday, look out for more news from Thursday onwards.