Lachlan Etheridge, Brad Thrift, Kerrod Binge and Ryan Prentice are off to Spain for one final tour with the NSW Country U18s before they hit the colts or senior ranks next year.

All four finished the HSC a few weeks ago, swapping books for boots and getting straight back into training for the tour.

They will go into camp on Monday at rugby nursery St Josephs in Hunters Hill before flying off for Madrid on Wednesday.

The four junior Pirates will play four games over the 16-day tour.

The first game was supposed to be against the Spanish junior national side although unfortunately that fell through and they will play the Madrid representative side instead.

While Spain is obviously infatuated with another brand of football, it is also one of the fastest developing rugby nations, behind Argentina, for where the tour was originally planned.

“Apparently the  airline shut down so we were going to have to fly to Canada and go through America and Mexico to get there,” Prentice said.

The flights were going to cost over $6000 alone, so Spain came off the bench.

The side went there four years ago, so asked the same teams and clubs if they could host them agian on short notice.

Following Madrid, the boys are off  to Barcelona for two games before a trip down the west coast to Valencia.

Prentice just hopes  they can put up more of a fight than the host sides did on a USA tour that he, Etheridge and Thrift went on earlier in the year.

“We beat one side 137-7, and that was a penalty try,” Prentice said.

“It would be good to get some competition.”

The junior Cockatoos are not the same side that was in the States, with over half of them  opting not to go to Spain due to other commitments.

That includes four NSW reps which may bring the team back to the competition a bit.

Those players withdrawing was a win for Etheridge, who was only called up for the tour a month ago.

“It’s awesome,” Etheridge said.

“It is the best thing I have done in rugby so far.”

Etheridge is concerned about the weather however, with daytime temperatures not hitting double figures at the moment in Madrid.

All four boys will return from the tour keen to start their post-school lives.

Prentice is off to join the Manly Marlins and Thrift the Newcastle Wanderers.

Etheridge and Binge will stay in town and take up apprenticeships in plumbing and building while spending weekends with the  black and gold Pirates.

“It will be our last game in the 18s and a chance to get picked up by the Country colts,” Thrift said.

“It’s going to be an awesome trip.”