HE has been one of the stars for the Saint Stanislaus' College first XV in 2019, but this week Cowra's Cameron Trengove will be putting his skills to the test in another proud rugby jumper.
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Trengove is part of the NSW I Schoolboys outfit which will line up at Riverview from Tuesday in pursuit of glory at the Australian School Rugby Championships.
Not only is Trengove's team the defending champions, but six of the last seven national titles have gone to a New South Wales side.
The talented halfback is keen to help NSW add to that record come Saturday afternoon.
"They won the championship last year against the NSW twos, the second string New South Wales side - that shows the New South Wales pathways are going pretty well," Trengove said.
"I guess there is expectation now to meet the standard of play that there was last year. There's the same coaches and a few players returning to play for the same team, so I think we're in pretty good stead."
Trengove, who played all his junior footy at the Cowra Eagles until year nine, has previously represented NSW Schoolboys at under 16s level, but this week's tournament marks the first time he has played at the opens level nationally.
The Year 12 student, who is the only country representative in the team, is excited about the challenge which lies ahead and has already enjoyed the experience of working with NSW Waratahs coaches and staff as part of the build up to the annual tournament.
"I'm a bit nervous, but it should be good," he said.
"We had like a week-long training camp at Waratahs headquarters at Daceyville and it was run by our coaching staff as well as the Waratahs coaching staff.
"There were probably 60-80 boys there from all different teams, so that was really good. It just shows that some of the boys in that Waratahs team were playing for New South Wales last year, so it's not that much of a step to that level, it's not as big as you think it is."
Trengove's NSW team is in the same pool as Queensland 2, ACT and a Barbarians squad which includes fellow Stannies talent Joe Sullivan.
Tuesday's match against Queensland 2 will be critical. Victory will see them one win away from Saturday's decider, while a loss means the best NSW I could finish is fifth.
It means Trengove's impact off the bench will be important.
"I don't really know how much game time I'll get, but it sounds like I'll be put on with 15-20 minutes left of the game to try and bring a bit of energy and get the pack sparked up a bit," he said.
"It's always good coming off the bench, you can make the most of some tired forwards around the ruck and get through every now and again."
While Trengove's goal this week is to be crowned an Australian Schoolboys champion, he is also excited to bring what he learns from the five-day, three-game tournament back to the Stannies side he skippers.
After three rounds of this season's Independent Sporting Association competition, Stannies sits fourth with a win and two defeats. Their next match is on July 27 against the winless St Pius.
"It's been a bit of an up and down season ... hopefully we can have a good run through the rest of the season," he said.
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