Ryan09 may have some valid points about the process that are perhaps worth exploring.
From what I can see from this thread, the process kicked off sometime last December with a NSW and QLD "train on" squad and detatchments in "other states".
They had two sessions in December and trained through Jan and Feb.
A NSW team, QLD Team and Barbarian team was formed with the intention that each team would play the others twice.
On 18 Feb there was the first of three 4 day camps for around 50 players. Maybe this is where the first round of games (from above) were played.
The second camp (52 players) was held around March 14.
On April 8, the final 4 day camp for 50 players was held.
The final squad of 28 was publicly announced on 18 April.
Of this final 28 person squad, 19 were from Academies, 9 were not Academy boys.
17 of the 28 were NGS graduates, 11 were not NGS graduates.
10 of the 28 had been at JRWC 2011 (2 for other countries).
6 of the 28 were from 2012 Aust Schoolboys.
The Aust 7's boys were excluded (rightly or wrongly) from consideration.
Not all of the Final Squad were at all the camps (minor injury perhaps, or maybe the selectors were happy with the candidate, and wanted to see more from other contenders).
The camps held from Feb onwards (50 players) to whittle them down to the final 28 seems to be a rather transparent and fair process.
The issue appears to surround how does Player X get into the December - February train on squads before the first cut to the 50 (or thereabouts) for the final 3 camps. I'm assuming that there would have been around 40 - 50 in Sydney and Brisbane with probably 5-10 in ACT, Melbourne and Perth. Initial Possibles numbering around 100-130 players.
If it was solely on the basis of Invitations sent out from the centre then maybe Ryan09 has a point about a lack of transparancy.
Were all Clubs asked to nominate who they thought should be looked at during the initial December/January sessions?
Should the Clubs not take some of the responsibility to be aware of the process and actively promote their better players for selection and invitation, and if the lad is seriously good but overlooked due to the lack of previous form with Schoolboys, GPS, NGS or whatever, then they should leave no stone unturned in lobbying their nearest ARU Talent scout, ARU HPU, grade coach, club president whatever it takes to get that lad in the initial 100-130.
Reviewing the first 6 pages of this thread, there doesn't seem to have been much despair about Player X or Y missing out on the various lists for the last 3 camps. If the kid is seriously that good (and uninjured), they would be tearing it up in Colts 1 or Grade somewhere.
Rugby is a small community and word spreads very quickly. I think that the "powers that be" would find out pretty fast that there is a smokie in [insert club name] Colts 1 who should be looked at.
The point that residential camps cost money is absolutely correct.
However, the marginal cost of a few extra players attending the intitial training sessions in December/Jan would not be much, and any kids who get additional benefit from the skills development from those camps will ultimately increase the skill base of their club team when they return.
The whole thing about clubs being involved in the initial nomination process would actually require some serious honesty from the Club Coach to the player about their actual prospects of higher selection. There are many in the current generation of kids and Parents who have never received any genuinely honest skills assessments as a result of the contemporary "Everyone's a winner" positive self-esteem environment that we live in. Honesty (often for the first time in their lives) can be rather confronting for these people.
