NRL scouts have struck gold in their pursuit of the latest and greatest athletes, fossicking through traditional rugby union nurseries and turning up more talent than ever.

Longtime rugby strongholds like the GPS (Greater Public Schools) systems in Brisbane and Sydney are now just as likely to produce an NRL name as a Super Rugby star.

Clubs such as the Roosters are even encouraging their best and brightest into private schools like famed union breeding ground Joeys in Hunters Hill, confident their juniors will benefit from the private education and regimen of boarding school without being convinced to jump ship.

Read on below for foxsports.com.au’s NRL starting side of former schoolboy rugby stars.

Round 20

Souths are another who are lining up rugby talent from around the age of 16, with schoolboy talents from both Australia and New Zealand in Angus Crichton, Tyrone Taukamo (who had 15 NRL outfits chasing him last year), Adam Doueihi, Toby Rudolf and Cruz Topai-Aveai all on their books.

While the Warriors compete with five rival franchises in rugby obsessed New Zealand, veteran Raiders recruiter Peter Mulholland is making inroads across the ditch.

Earlier this year Canberra made a bigger song and dance than most would for a 18-year-old when they signed Paul Roache, brother of Warriors rookie Nathaniel, an ex-Junior All Black and star schoolboy five-eighth. They think he’s going to be worth the hype.

Mulholland was the man who got current All Blacks star Nehe Milner-Skudder into Canterbury’s under 20s system in the early years of the Holden Cup competition.

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That pathway has long been the NRL’s trump card over union when it comes to young talent.

But even with the ARU bringing in its own equivalent of sorts with the Super 20s championship last year and the Holden Cup being split into state-based competitions in 2018, the fifteen man game still cannot compete with the dollars on offer in league.

That and the flagging fortunes of a game on its knees in Australia has seen clubs cherrypick some of rugby’s best in the past decade.

Tyrone Taukamo was already turning heads at just 14 in both codes, and is now with the Rabbitohs. Source: Supplied

Ben Ikin, Nathan Ryan and Ben Glover discuss the problems facing the Titans, Broncos succession planning and Souths turning the corner.

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Putting together an NRL XIII of schoolboy rugby stars, we kept the cut-off age at 25, leaving the likes of Cooper Cronk, Semi Radradra and Elijah Taylor on the sidelines to show just how many league stars cut their teeth in the rival code.

1. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (24)

The biggest junior coup for the thirteen-man game in some time, Tuviasa-Sheck was a schoolboy rugby star across the ditch before being lured to the Roosters in 2011.

Tuviasa-Sheck represented NZ Schoolboys and when he made his big-money move to the Warriors also knocked back a Kiwi Super Rugby bid to bring him back to union.

At the time he spoke of his childhood goal to represent the All Blacks, declaring “hopefully one day that dream happens,” and has not ruled out a code-switch in the future.

2. Kalyn Ponga (19)

Kalyn Ponga will join the Knights on big money next season. Source: AAP

Before he was signing an eye-watering multimillion-dollar, five-year deal with Newcastle, the headgeared tyro was tearing up Brisbane’s famed GPS rugby nursery, his highlights reel from a 2014 season at Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) clocking almost 900,000 views on YouTube.

Ponga turned down both the Queensland Reds and AFL’s Brisbane Lions as a 15-year-old to join the Cowboys and continue his progression in league.

The Reds came knocking again last December before Ponga signed his lucrative Knights contract for 2018, and just this week his manager has had to hose down rumours of a return to the fifteen-man game.

3. Solomone Kata (22)

Treading a similar path to the one walked by one-time Warriors teammate Konrad Hurrell a few years earlier, Kata was brought from his native Tonga to New Zealand on a rugby scholarship in 2011.

Strong performances in Sacred Heart Auckland’s First XV saw him represent Tonga’s under 21 side before being signed by the Warriors in 2013.

In just his third season of rugby league Kata was crowned the Warriors top NRL tryscorer and earning himself five Kiwi Tests at the end of 2016.

4. Taane Milne (22)

The Auckland-born Fijian international was raised in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and juggled both codes as a junior while attending GPS school Newington alongside Tepai Moeroa and Joey Lussick.

In 2013 Milne represented both NSW and Australian schoolboys in rugby, before his time with the Roosters 20s saw him earn back-to-back starts with the Junior Kiwis.

At the Dragons Benji Marshall described Milne as having “one of the best in and aways and flick passes I’ve seen” and Ivan Cleary has picked him up on a two-year deal for his Wests Tigers rebuild in 2018.

5. Suliasi Vunivalu (21)

Suliasi Vunivalu was raised on rugby in his native Fiji. Source: Getty Images

The kid with more tries in his first two season of first grade (42 and counting) than any other player in rugby league’s history only played the 13-man game once he was picked up by Melbourne.

That $30,000 NYC contract is proving money for jam for the Storm, whose poaching of the Fijian flyer saw them trump the Auckland Blues, where he rose through their development squads until the age of 17, and interest from the four other Kiwi rugby franchises as well.

Vunivalu’s 23 tries last year broke Israel Folau’s previous record for most four-pointers in a rookie season, and the Storm are currently in talks around extending him until the end of 2020.

6. Luke Keary (25)

A product of Oakhill college, the 2014 Rabbitohs premiership winner played Australian schoolboys alongside future Waratahs Jed Holloway and Hugh Roach in 2010.

Keary struggled to crack the 13-man game during a junior stint with the Titans, which came after Parramatta had overlooked him due to his size.

Eventually Keary rose to prominance at Redfern, but seriously considered a return to rugby with interest from the Waratahs and Reds before linking with the Roosters.

7. Brodie Croft (20)

Just like Cooper Cronk, the champion half he is charged with succeeding and so often compared to already at such a young age, Croft comes into grade with a rugby background.

While Cronk represented Australian schoolboys in both codes as a teen, Croft starred in the same Churchie 2014 side that featured Kalyn Ponga.

Croft also turned out for Queensland at under 16s level before focusing on league en route to a 2016 NRL debut.

8. Tyson Frizell (25)

The son of a Welsh father and Tonga mother, Frizell toured Europe with the Australian schoolboys XV having focused on rugby from the age of 16.

When he got back from that trip in 2009 he had offers on the table from both Cronulla and the Waratahs, and the bruising inside centre became a hard-running second-rower.

He’s since become a stalwart of the Dragons pack and a regular at Origin and Kangaroos level.

NSW enforcer Tyson Frizell knocked back the Waratahs as a teen. Picture: Brett Costello Source: News Corp Australia

9. Connor Watson (21)

Before the Knights and Tigers were in pursuit of the Roosters utility Australian Sevens coach Geraint John had a crack at bringing him into his side for the Rio Olympics.

Attending rugby stronghold Knox Grammar on an indigenous scholarship, Watson was approached by John as well as a few Shute Shield outfits in his final year of high school.

Watson, one of Peter O’Sullivan’s finds while he was Chooks recruitment manager, stayed at Bondi, where he’s since risen to become one of the NRL’s most promising young playmakers.

10. Nelson Asofa-Solomona (21)

Nelson Asofa-Solomona could well have been terrorising defences for the Hurricanes. Source: Getty Images

At 200cm and 115 kilos, the Wellington born monster was chased and chased hard by the Hurricanes in 2016 before being locked down by the Storm.

With surprising athleticism for one of the NRL’s biggest bodies, it’s understood NZ Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens even sounded out Asofa-Solomona about a possible move to the shortened rugby format.

His loyalty to Melbourne was rewarded with a New Zealand Test call-up in May before a broken hand forced his withdrawal.

11. Angus Crichton (21)

The catalyst behind this yarn and the latest schoolboy rugby star to light up the rival code.

Crichton has been touted as a NSW Origin rep of the future after a tremendous 2016 season with the struggling Rabbitohs.

But after back-to-back Australian schoolboys tours in the 15-man game, Crichton told The Daily Telegraph this week that a Waratahs directive that he would not play Super Rugby until the age of 23 drove him to chase an NRL start.

The Waratahs in response said they were surprised by the one-time outside centre’s claim, but with Michael Maguire backing him into the Souths fold Crichton turned his back on rugby and the Roosters lower grades to link with the Bunnies.

One-time Scots college star Angus Crichton in action for Souths. pic Mark Evans Source: News Corp Australia

12. Jaydn Su’A (19)

A bruising back-rower with the ability to play in the centres at a pinch, Su’A became the youngest starting forward in the Broncos history when Wayne Bennett tossed him in against Wests Tigers in May last year.

He has since played seven games in a star-studded Brisbane forward contingent and while he was signed by Brisbane in his teens, came through that same 2014 Churchie starting XV as an inside centre alongside Ponga and Croft.

Queensland Reds assistant coach Jason Gilmore was in charge of that side and told The Courier Mail in 2016 that ““I don’t think I have ever seen a player with (Su’A’s) timing when tackling,” but the Broncos have never let him stray from Red Hill.

13. Tepai Moeroa (21)

Tepai Moeroa (with ball) as a gigantic 15-year-old for Newington. Source: News Corp Australia

A schoolboy star in league, union and athletics, Moeroa has long had his pick of all three pursuits, and still plans on giving the latter two a crack at some point in his career.

Over two years of Schoolboys tours Moeroa racked up nine starts, the equal of Wallabies stars Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper.

But with the Waratahs and Waikato chasing hard and an Olympic dream also very much on the cards as a record-breaking junior shot-putter, Parramatta have won out so far for his services.

Earlier this year Moeroa inked a new two-year deal, and wants to play Origin and win a grand final before contemplating any code switch.