NSW I coach Lachlan White says his side hasn’t spent any time talking about last year’s disappointing result at the Australian Schools Championships, ahead of next week’s tournament.

The NSW side started the 2017 tournament as favourites but were stunned by QLD II on the Thursday afternoon which relegated them to the third and fourth placed playoff. They then lost to QLD I on the final day of the tournament and finished fourth overall.

“It’s new year, we’ve got new players and we’ll be taking a new approach,” White told Rugby News.

“From a personal perspective, I’ve reviewed and learnt from our experiences last year and in doing so we’ve changed a number of things leading into this campaign, but we won’t be talking to the boys much about 2017.

“Dean Hargraves was also with us in 2017 but he’s coaching NSW II this year, so we were forced to change our systems and the way we play anyway to prepare for a potential match against them.”

White said he was impressed by the overall quality at the NSW All Schools trials played across Sydney last month and was confident his selectors have picked a side to win next week’s tournament.

“It was great to see all the different associations trial so well. Combined Catholic Colleges got a few players through, Combined High Schools had a good win over ISA in difficult conditions, so I’m pleased that we’ve got a good mixture of kids from right around the state.

“Luke Reimer, a No.6 from Barker College has shown great maturity during our preparations. Joey Walton is back for a second year from Wadalba High School, he’s an extremely talented player and  is very composed under pressure.

“Tane Edmed is a good flyhalf from Trinity and has been drawing on his experiences with the Australian Youth Sevens side as well. His communication and chat this week has been really important so far.”

NSW I face Victoria, ACT and QLD II in their three pool matches and will most likely need to win all three games to book a spot in the final of a competition that gets tighter every year.

“We’re not looking past our first game against Victoria at the moment but we know Queensland and ACT will be very well prepared,” White said.

“Apinesa Driti played with us last year, but he’s now down in Canberra and we’ll need to keep our eye on him.”

Although the Australian Schools and Australian Schools Barbarians squads will be picked following the tournament, White said that wasn’t the players main priority.

“The exact words we’ve said is that our goal is to win the National Championships and if we can do that and play well as a team, the gold jerseys will take care of themselves.”

NSW I open their Australian Schools Championships campaign against Victoria on Sunday at 11:30am at Riverview in Sydney. NSW II face Combined States at 10am.