2023 World Rugby U20 Championship
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Clever, but too clever
No try
Waste from France
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Great first half
France should have had breathing distance
Ireland 14 - 17 France
Halftime -
France have turned the game on its head with two quick tries at the start of the second half with the Irish still down to 14
Ireland 14 - 31 France
51 mins -
Can't see Ireland coming back from this
French 9 MOTM already
Player of the Tournament for me
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That's it
France like the tide
You can't stop it
But should have been disallowed for leading forearm into contact by the try scorer
Ireland 14 - 36 France
70 mins -
Try for the ages
Blindside goes the distance
Ireland 14 - 43 France
75 mins -
France romping home
Ireland 14 - 50 France
Full timeGreat performance
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French U20 seriously impressive. Their 9 looks a star to me.
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Jeez looks like France are becoming the new ABs. Will winning a WC on their home turf be the start of a World Rugby dominance for the next wee while?
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He missed some very obvious things that halted Irish momentum
But France were by far the better team
They had Plan A and Plan B
That's why they won
Once the Irish fancy passing didn't work they didn't have an alternative
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France steamrolled England and Ireland in the second half of both matches. Their fitness is on another level to every other team at that level. They've a different setup where players are ready for top 14 rugby at a young age.
Only England could potentially close that gap imo but they've fallen behind the French for now. France could, should, dominate this tournament for the foreseeable future.
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Not mentioned yet, I think, but Japan finished last and drops down to next year's WR U20 Trophy.
The 2023 WR U20 Trophy is currently being played for, with the winner earning promotion to next year's WR U20 Championship.
First round U20 Trophy results:
Scotland 64 - 33 Zimbabwe
Samoa 34 - 25 Kenya
Uruguay 33 - 31 USA
Spain 53 - 0 Hong KongScotland - relegated from the previous U20 Championship - should be the favourites to win the Trophy. That would be a reverse swap from the previous promotion/relegation.
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@Stargazer said in 2023 World Rugby U20 Championship:
Not mentioned yet, I think, but Japan finished last and drops down to next year's WR U20 Trophy.
The 2023 WR U20 Trophy is currently being played for, with the winner earning promotion to next year's WR U20 Championship.
First round U20 Trophy results:
Scotland 64 - 33 Zimbabwe
Samoa 34 - 25 Kenya
Uruguay 33 - 31 USA
Spain 53 - 0 Hong KongScotland - relegated from the previous U20 Championship - should be the favourites to win the Trophy. That would be a reverse swap from the previous promotion/relegation.
Spain is interesting. They've been competitive at youth level for a number of years now?
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Food for Thought
It's time for a rethink for the New Zealand U20s after another low finish
Since winning the first four World Championships between 2008 and 2011, New Zealand has only won twice since 2015 and has missed the semis three times in the last five tournaments.
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@mikey07 Adam Julian doesn't watch NPC close enough. Many of these U20s players are already in NPC squads, rubbing shoulders with Super Rugby players. Or they have been named in squads, this year.
As an example, one of Hawke's Bay's reps in the NZ U20s (Harry Godfrey) has played Super Rugby and NPC, two others are players on a NDC with the Hurricanes (Cooper Flanders and Hunter Morrison) so have trained with SR players all SRP season, and the youngest was in his first year out of school and may get a NDC, next year (Tom Allen). They all, and another 18-year-old school leaver (Patrick Tuifua) have been named in the Magpies squad. Whether they'll get much game time is another question (Godfrey will, not sure about the others), but they'll be training with and learning from experienced players during the NPC (incl. SR players) and the two youngest will play for our U19s team.
The idea of letting the NZU20s play in the NPC ignores the fact that the U20 cut-off date is the 1st of January. So basically, it would have to be a NZU19s team. They'd be smashed in the NPC. Not to mention that you'd have to uproot players from their home towns/provinces for the duration of the NPC. That would require decent payment so they can survive for that time. That won't happen.
IMO, in addition to exposure to top coaches, they need international tours and tournaments prior to the WR U20 Championship, starting at U18 level, then U19, and then U20, like the teams belonging to the Six Nations have. IIRC France recently won the U18 Six Nations (not sure whether it uses that name). Super Rugby U20s needs to be more than 3 games, but that requires a lot of money to be pumped into that programme (Silver Lake money?) They need to bring the Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament back, and better opposition during the NZU19 tour than they had last year (which were mostly very poor teams due to the timing of the tour - and I'm not sure how they can fix that, because the Saffa U18/19 comps run in their own time frames and they do not align with ours). We need a decent international U18 tournament or tour for our NZ Schools' team. (And IMO they need to do the same for school girls and an U20s women's team, because that's happening in the Six Nations, too).
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