WR U20 Championship 2025
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@Kirwan said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Gregan would have been happy with that pass.
Oudenryn looks like he's come straight from the pub.
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@Crazy-Horse said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
The best part for me was seeing the way the NZers aligned themselves to beat the French defence. It looked so natural to them. Perhaps we are finally seeing a generation of kids coming through with the instincts to beat modern defences.
Only watching the highlights, but that French defence is pretty passive, I wouldn't be too inclined to call it modern.
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Junior Boks name unchanged line-up for World Rugby U20 Championship Final
The Junior Springboks have named an unchanged match-23 for Saturday eveningās much-anticipated World Rugby U20 Championship Final against New Zealand in Rovigo, Italy.
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hey Oom PB how are you doing? Good luck to NZ of course
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Well done to the Baby Boks. Deserved winners on the day and Pead the outstanding player of the tournament.
They had to work hard for their win.
Commiserations to the Baby Blacks. They built through the tournament, but came up against a quality outfit in the final.
Thatās now 7 wins straight for the Baby Boks over the Baby Blacks in the junior World Cup. Bogey team.
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@Bovidae from a couple of articles Iāve read, Bok u20 head coach Kevin Foote said that they had talked quite a bit with Rassie and his team, especially Jerry Flannery who is the Boks defence coach.
ā Weāve had lots of input from the [Boks] defensive coach [Jerry Flannery] and their medical team and have been very well supported, which we are grateful for.ā
I believe Galthie has been working similarly with the French u20s over the last few years.
How much interaction does the NZ u20 coaching team have with the All Blacks coaches I wonder? Is NZ rugby missing a trick again?
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@Bovidae scrum was a gimme penalty for the Boks for most of the game. You canāt win if you canāt maintain pressure and force your opponent to crack.
When NZ did apply sustained pressure the Boks defence was out of this world (that defensive set in the 1st half was huge), but they looked human. They just didnāt do it enough to tire the Boks out.
Pead will be a Springbok in the next 2 years.
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@Bovidae That 10 minute period after half time where we battered their line but came away with nothing really cost us. Outstanding bok defence
I thought our scrum was ok but once Pole went off the scrum went badly
Never like to criticise these young guys too much but replacement tight head Dane Johnson seemed like a penalty magnet all tournament. I believe he's eligible next year so he will need to bulk up a bit. Hopefully this will be a good learning curve -
@Kiwidom Johnston, like McLeod and Wiseman, are in their first year out of school. I commented when the original squad was named how surprised I was that Johnston was selected given he was only the reserve TH prop for the Chiefs U20s. It's pretty hard for a prop to pack against someone who could be 2 years older. FaleafÄ also had his issues on the TH side.
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It looks like everything is back to normal so what better way to confirm this than to post an overly long write-up of the U20 final.
So anyway. Well done to the Junior Boks, deserved winners both in this game and in the overall tournament. The NZ U20s should also be pleased with their overall year, I think: they showed plenty of signs of better preparation, solid coaching, and good team culture. While they took over most of last yearās game plan, it was noticeable that they were thoroughly developing it: the running lines were tighter, the midfield pairing worked as a real collective, and the kicking tactics were on point.
As far as the final itself is concerned, I think the Baby Blacks played well, but they were always chasing the game after ālosingā the first quarter and the subsequent momentum through the game. First, they couldnāt defend the Junior Bok rolling maul. And secondly, they couldnāt finish their own chances as efficiently as they did in the U20 TRC. Part of this was of course the Junior Bok defence. But the other part is the NZ U20s simply not choosing the right option.
In their first ārealā attack of the game, the NZ U20s manipulated the Junior Bok defence well, condensing their defensive line through forward carries before going wide. A quick Roberts carry and recycle gives Simpson the ball in his hands and a two man overlap on his right.
These opportunities become extra important in a final, as they are sparse and shape the game's momentumVaenuku is running at Williams outside shoulder so is in a good position to finish on top of him. Another option would be the over the top-pop to Solomon, who is unmarked. Instead, Simpson goes himself, being stopped short, before Solomon is forced out in the next phase.
While the Baby Blacks would score soon after, not scoring in these kinds of situations drains an attackās confidence while boosting the momentum of the defence. If the defence feels it can stop you in multi-phase, then it becomes much harder to get on top of them the more the game goes on.
While Rico Simpson has developed really well as a first five this year (his mature showing in the semi-final further proof of that), thereās still things he needs to improve on: (1) when to stay in structure and when to play what you see and (2) how to manage your attack when things are going different than expected.
In a first example, the NZ U20s have an attacking scrum around the halfway line (38th minute), with Simpson calling one of those typical looping plays, Vaenuku tracking the play as a second trail runner behind Simpson. The idea is to create a line-break, with either Vaenuku going through or the latter putting Kunawave away. But the scrum is messy and the passing is poor, so when the ball reaches Simpson at the South African defensive seam, Vaenuku isnāt right on Simpsonās shoulder. Furthermore, Bester, the South African 12, is in the bin, which means theyāre defending with fewer players in the line.
Wait, the space is not a lie?So when Simpson gets the ball, he needs to break structure and simply move the ball into space to Kunawave, rather than going for the planned move. But he throws it out the back to Vaenuku who is easily tackled by Jooste and the play breaks down.
The second aspect has to do with the SA U20 defence itself. The Junior Boks didnāt rush as much as they did in the U20 TRC ā focusing instead on containing the NZ U20 wide attack by pushing out in numbers ā and this meant that those looping plays out the back didnāt work as effectively as they did in the U20 Rugby Championship. But this also provides opportunity for the attack, as this means that there is more space close to the ruck and in the middle of the field.
With the game nearly over, Stanley Solomon, Will Cole and Maloni Kunawave show what happens when you cut back against the grain and attack through the middle, targeting the seams between forwards as well as the space around the ruck. There are a lot of tired Junior Bok forwards in that space, who are vulnerable for these kinds of moves.
Again, all too little, too late. Just to be clear, this is, by no means, meant as a criticism to the team nor to Simpson. I thought they played outstandingly this year, and put in some massive performances. Simpson is going to be an excellent player and heāll learn a lot from this. In this final, they played really hard and it was clear that they gave it their all.
The most positive thing is that the NZ U20 set-up is finally showing signs of having their own clear identity, as well as coaches who are able to improve these systems. It will be up to next yearās crop and the new first fives to further sharpen their attack, and go one step further at the U20 World Championships in Georgia.
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The fact that both France and New Zealand lost their matches is not a coincidence. Their semifinal was physically very demanding. France had beaten Argentina by a cricket score and went to lose for the third place against the same team which they had crushed ten days before. The ABs U20 looked cooked in the final, as soon as the first cooling break. Losing Pole was a big handicap too.
