The Bay of Plenty's top under-14 and under-15 rugby players have been honing their skills this week at Maramatanga Park in Te Puna.

The sub-union carnival is looking to find the representatives for this season's Bay of Plenty under-15 team.

But Bay of Plenty Rugby Union secondary schools manager Ian Parata says it's also about coach and player development.

'The atmosphere is not so much about the winning, but giving kids and coaches a positive, fun experience from the two days.”

Six teams and 150 players have been in Te Puna for the carnival, which concludes today with the naming of the Bay of Plenty under-15 team at around 3.30pm.

Players from the Bay's three main centres of Tauranga, Rotorua, and Whakatane are represented, as well as outlying towns such as Katikati, Te Puke, and Kawerau.

Those who make the cut for the regional representative team will take on the best under-15s from Northland and Waikato.

'The big game for this team will be as curtain-raisers when the Bay of Plenty Steamers take on Waikato at Tauranga Domain in October,” adds Ian.

'It will be a great experience for them.”

Last week the girls held their own carnival, from which a team was selected that lost to Auckland in their final yesterday – not a bad achievement for the Bay, considering the size of Auckland province, says Ian.

'The carnival is about recognising young people need to have fun. All of the coaches unanimously agreed that if any of their players got a yellow card, they would sub them out for the rest of the game.

'So it's not about beating each other up, it's about having fun and forming comradeship.”

He says one example is Eastern Bay being short on players for one of the games, so the other teams chipped in to bring them up to strength.

'They ended up beating Western Bay, but no one was aggrieved about it,” says Ian.

'The coaches are all excellent, and they've bought into that vision of good sportsmanship and having a good time on the day.”

Today's two games are at 10.30am and 1.30pm at Maramatanga Park, with the BOP under-15 squad being announced later this afternoon.