Hewat leads AUS U20 against Samoa

Joining Hewat in the leadership group will be Angus Scott-Young and Nick Jooste, who will take up the roles of vice-captains.

In the halves, the all ACT combination of Ryan Lonergan and Jooste will guide the team around the park as Australia looks to open its Oceania Rugby U20s Championship with a victory.  

Australia U20s head coach Simon Cron said: "I think we have all the basic stuff covered and I am looking forward to seeing the lads play now rather than train. 

"Samoa is a great Rugby nation and they are very strong ball carriers and hard defensively. For us they will be a great challenge.

"We have tried to keep some combinations, especially at the start of our campaign for cohesiveness. We have a few combinations on the field that we are trying to maintain from a Super U20s level so that we can give them the best opportunity we can to be cohesive.

"The lads are a great bunch of boys, they're good humans. They work hard, they listen and they are coachable. We run a tight ship and they like a tight ship so we're doing everything we can to be professional."   

Australia Under-20: 15 Jayden Ngamanu, 14 Dylan Riley, 13 Len Ikatau, 12 Tony Hunt, 11 James Ramm, 10 Nick Jooste, 9 Ryan Lonergan, 8 Reece Hewat (captain), 7 Liam Wright, 6 Angus Scott-Young, 5 Ryan McCauley, 4 Harry Hockings, 3 Harry Chapman, 2 Efi Maafu, 1 Harry Johnson-Holmes.

Replacements: 16 Tom Horton, 17 Sama Malolo, 18 Vaauli Faaumusili, 19 Lachlan Swinton, 20 Darcy Swain, 21 Theo Strang, 22 Jack McGregor, 23 Clay Uyen.

Date: Friday, April 28

Venue: Bond University, Gold Coast

Kick-off: 19.00 (22.00 Samoan Time; 09.00 GMT)

Referee: Damon Murphy (Australia)

Assistant referees: Tevita Rokovereni (Fiji), Jordan Way (Australia)