A TRIO of upcoming York Acorn aces are gearing up for an international rugby league tour to Italy.

Tom Hill, Davey Burns and Danny Caldwell are in the BARLA Great Britain Under-23s squad that will play two matches and take part in a two-day nines tournament in Padova, west of Venice.

Acorn physio Jonty Thompson has also been chosen to travel with the 49-strong party.

Team manager Mick Turner is taking 35 players in total, including former Acorn centre Matt Embleton, who now plays for Castleford Panthers.

They fly out on June 10 and will take on the Italian national side on June 11 and a French representative side on June 13 before splitting into two teams for the nine-a-side tournament.

York-based BARLA chairman Spen Allison, who is also an Acorn member, said the trio's selection was well deserved.

Hill, 20, the son of Acorn coach Alfie Hill, has been a star loose-forward in Acorn's promotion to the National Conference premier division, and captained the BARLA U23s in their recent win over England Students, while Burns and Caldwell, both 22-year-old props, have been immense up front.

Allison said: "Tom has had a tremendous season. Alfie is also the coach for BARLA Yorkshire and I'm the manager, and when we were selecting the squad Alfie was reluctant to pick Tom because he's his son, but I insisted he had earned it because he's good enough and should be in on merit.

"In the four representative games he played, he put in man-of-the-match performances. He plays far above his weight and his enthusiasm is marvellous. Everybody wants a lad like Tom in the dressing room because he lifts the people around him and he's got a great attitude to the game.

"Davey Burns is a prop who can play the full 80 minutes, and you don't get many props like that these days.

"As an example of Davey, when Acorn played Wigan St Patrick's, who are a Conference premier division side, all the St Pats lads applauded him off the field.

"Danny is more of an impact player - and he always makes an impact. He was also one of the top try-scorers in the first division, which speaks volumes for a prop forward.

"They're all good lads. All three of them have tremendous futures and have the makings of professional players."