ULVERSTON amateur Dan Crabtree is among the 15 players who have been chosen to represent Wales at next month's Rugby League Commonwealth Nines.

Crabtree, who previously played community rugby league in North Wales, will head out with the squad to Moreton Bay in Queensland for the tournament, which is being played on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 of February.

The under-23 tournament will see Wales battle it out with defending champions Papua New Guinea, Australia, England, Scotland, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, and coach Shane Eccles believes he has a strong squad at his disposal.

“It has been a tough process to select a final 15-man squad as we had interest from lots of players of a high standard and it was very difficult to make the final selections due to the quality of players identified as potential squad members,” said Eccles.

“This alone shows the growth of the sport in Wales and looks to continue into the future.

“Now that we have selected the squad, we are starting to focus on the competition and prepare for what promises to be an exciting competition and event.”

Wales won the bronze medal at the first Commonwealth tournament in Glasgow in 2014 when it was an under-19 competition.

Ben Jones and Morgan Jeffries of West Wales Raiders, Paul Edwards of Rhondda Outlaws and Zak Williams of Coventry Bears were all part of that squad and return this time around aiming for a similar performance.

Crabtree is one of two players in the squad to have experience of playing at amateur level in North Wales along with Rochdale Hornets' Blake Turner.

Meanwhile, Connor Farrer, capped six times at full international level by Wales, is the most experienced member of the squad.

And West Wales Raiders, who play their first League One match on the day the tournament begins, provide the most players in the squad with seven.

Wales squad: Cobi Green (Bradford Bulls), Liam Rice-Wilson, Zak Williams (both Coventry Bears), Blake Turner (Rochdale Hornets), Liam Silver, Jake Thomas (both Torfaen Tigers), Dan Crabtree (Ulverston), Rhys Gant (Valley Cougars), Karlin Claridge, Connor Farrer, Macauley Harris, Morgan Jeffries, Ben Jones, Aneurin Walker (all West Wales Raiders), Paul Edwards (unattached).