1 November 2007 By Graham Croker
Sydney University Football Club has eight players in the 27 man Australian Sevens squad announced today for a three day trial camp on the Gold Coast starting on Friday.
The camp is the first of two before a final squad of 12 is selected for the opening tournaments of the 2007-08 IRB Sevens World Series, to be played in Dubai and South Africa in December.
The eight SUFC players in the squad are Pat McCutcheon, Mitch Inman, Ed Jenkins, Ben McCalman, Tim Davidson, Jeremy Sua, Nathan Trist and Peter Owens. Former SUFC players Ross Duncan and Henari Veratau are also in the squad, which contains seven players from the 2006-07 team, including veterans Ant Sauer and Shawn Mackay, Melbourne Rebels duo Trist and James Lew, Canberra Vikings pair Tim Cornforth and Tim Wright and Australian Under 19s flyer Blair Connor.
SUFC Colts, Jeremy Sua, McCalman and Inman, have been called up from the Australian Under 19s team which finished third in the IRB world championships in April.
Melbourne Rebels coach Bill Millard, who coach Sydney University in 2005-06, will fill the role of caretaker coach for the first two legs of the World Series, with a permanent replacement to be named in time for the third leg in Wellington in February.
Australian sevens trial squad: Shawn MacKay (NSW), Ross Duncan (NSW), James Lew (NSW), Pat McCutcheon (NSW), Mitch Inman (NSW), Billy Ratu (NSW), Ed Jenkins (NSW), Peter Kimlin (ACT), Ben McCalman (NSW), Scott Higginbotham (QLD), Lloyd Johansson (QLD), Hugh Perrett (NSW), Tim Davidson (NSW), Ant Sauer (QLD), Casey Mitchell (QLD), Damon Murphy (QLD), Paul Doneley (QLD), Ben Martin (NSW), Nathan Trist (NSW), Jeremy Sua (NSW), Blair Connor (QLD), Junior Sovala (QLD), Tim Cornforth (ACT), Jackson Mullane (NSW), Henari Veratau (QLD), Peter Owens (NSW) and Tim Wright (NSW).