Aitutaki pair selected for academy

Aitutaki lads and rugby sevens high performance members Hugh Henry and Teu Paerau have been selected to attend the IRB Oceania sevens academy in Canberra, Australia at the end of the month.

Aitutaki lads and rugby sevens high performance members Hugh Henry and Teu Paerau have been selected to attend the IRB Oceania sevens academy in Canberra, Australia at the end of the month.

They are part of a seven-member Cook Islands team to attend the academy running from February 23 to 27.

The New Zealand Rugby Union, Australian Rugby Union and International Rugby Board (IRB) will have a number of specialist coaches, strength and conditioning trainers and nutritionists available to pass on their knowledge to the local players and also members of the American Samoan sevens team who will also attend the week-long camp.

The high performance academy will be run at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and is part of the IRB’s development plan for the Pacific region especially for developing countries like the Cook Islands and the local rugby union is most grateful for the great opportunity to send a team to train at this world-class sporting facility.

Henry and Paerau will depart this weekend for Australia to join other members of the Cook Islands squad from New Zealand and Australia.

Attendance at the academy is part of the local rugby body’s plan to build player capacity and depth to attend IRB tournaments throughout the year.

The seven players who will be attending the academy from the Cook Islands high performance programme and who are also in the Cooks sevens squad for 2014 are Teu Paerau (Aitutaki), Hugh Henry (Aitutaki), Matthew Henry (Christchurch), Simon Marcel (Auckland), Gregory Mullany (Brisbane), James Iopu (Brisbane) and Josh Petero (Sydney).

Cook Islands sevens and 15s team manager Cam Kilgour will also attend the high performances academy. The Cooks rugby sevens team will attend the IRB sevens in Hong Kong from March 28 to 30 and also the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland from July 26.