Liddicoat, Sinclair to line up for NZ under-20s
Manawatu could have two footballers running out in the defensive line when the New Zealand under-20 side plays at the Oceania championships.
Sean Liddicoat and Jack-henry Sinclair are in the squad to play at Vanuatu next month, which is a qualifying tournament for the 2017 under-20 World Cup in South Korea.
The pair played together when they were young coming through the age groups and in the Palmerston North Boys’ High School first XI in 2013, before Sinclair went to Auckland Grammar School.
Liddicoat played two more seasons for the first XI before
going to University of Canterbury this year to study engineering.
It will be the first time 19-yearold Liddicoat has represented New Zealand and he was ‘‘pretty chuffed’’ when he got the news.
‘‘It was a bit of a surprise, but a good surprise,’’ the Brunei-born Liddicoat said.
The tournamentwill be the first time he has played outside of New Zealand and Australia.
Liddicoat has been playing club football for Coastal Spirit in Christchurch this season and they are second in the Mainland Premier League.
He has played two seasons in the summer national league with Hawke’s Bay United and he will go back again this year.
Sinclair is on the fringes of the Wellington Phoenix squad, is a former New Zealand under-17 captain and national under-15 player.
Liddicoat’s former Palmerston North Boys’ High team-mate, Orin Ruaine-prattley, is in the Cook Islands team.
In Vanuatu, New Zealand have the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Solomon Islands in their pool. The two finalists will progress to the world cup.
There are 18 players in the under-20 squad, with three who have played for the senior All Whites (Clayton Lewis, Moses Dyer and Logan Rogerson), two from the previous under-20 campaign and nine who have played for the New Zealand under-17s.
Lewis and Dyer are the only returnees from the Junior All Whites team that reached the round of 16 for the first time at the under-20 world cup in New Zealand last year.
There are a couple of professionals in the squad like Myer Bevan, who is at the Nike Academy in England, Michael Woud from Sunderland.