2020 New Zealand U20s
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@Stargazer Philpott also coached a team that finished first, but the following 2 years have been disappointing with selections and performance.
The loss to Ireland in 2016 under Robertson would have to be one of the worst I've seen. The forwards got completely dominated.
As the article says, it isn't all about Ws and Ls.
“The main driver of our program is the development of future professionals,” Anthony said. “The challenge with that is that with any team in black there’s an expectation to win. “That program would look really different if our total aim was to win a world championship. “You’d pick a team early, you'd probably tour the northern hemisphere, so our players could get exposed to a very different style of play, which they get exposed at tournaments and sometimes struggle with.” -
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@Stargazer said in 2020 New Zealand U20s:
@Kirwan Andrew Goodman (also a SR assistant coach) and Clayton McMillan (next year's Chiefs interim coach), for example.
Well in Goodman's case he was coaching the most stacked team in the comp Ta$man and in McMillan's case he already has Chiefs and Maori All Blacks so i'd say his plate is fairly full.
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Speaking of U20s - I found this article interesting.
New Zealand Rugby believes it has tapped into a rich seam of big, tight-five players who would already be known to a wider audience had the World Rugby under-20 championship not been cancelled this year due to Covid-19. Two products from last year's under-20 program – Tupou Vaa’i and Cullen Grace – have progressed into an All Blacks squad this year, wand Taranaki lock Vaa’i is so young that he still qualified for the under-20 side this year. However, there are also high hopes within NZ Rugby for a further quartet of strong prospects – Sam Darry, Josh Lord, Fletcher Newell and Tamaiti Williams – who will instead be developed through the Mitre 10 Cup and Super Rugby. -
@KiwiMurph Not mentioned in the article (which focuses on the tight-five), but I assume Devan Flanders will be on their radar, too.
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@Stargazer Yeah I found it interesting in line with the comments from a poster the other day about recent U20 locks and their heights.
Agreed on Flanders he looked a real standout at U20 level in a fairly average team around him. Hopefully he can push for more game time for the Canes next year.
