Strong Canterbury showing in under-19 rugby side. | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Canterbury's rugby future will be rosy if the selection for the New Zealand team for the under-19 world championship in Durban in April is an accurate pointer.

Canterbury has eight players ? the best representation of any province ? in the team of 26 at an age level where North Island unions have usually dominated.

Canterbury's Steve Alfeld, Tim Bateman, Jonathan Direen, Robbie Flynn, Charles O'Connell, Baydon Phillips, Mason Pomare, and Nicholas Thomson all won places.

Five of them were in the successful Christchurch Boys' High team last season ? and two, Bateman and Pomare, two of the four under-18 players in the national team, are still at school.

The Canterbury representation reflected the fact for the first time for a long time a local school team was quite dominant not only in the region but in New Zealand, said Aussie McLean, the under-19 coach.

Boys' High won the Moascar Cup and drew the national schools' final, and that was an indication of some strength that hadn't been here in other years.

The team goes into camp in Rotorua on March 11 and prepares for the worlds with matches against the Chiefs and a combined Northland-North Harbour under 21 team.