WR U20 Championship 2025
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Just watched the full game.
Really enjoyed that. The skills of the backs was great to see and along with the desperation in defence the judicious use of the bench was noticeable - in addition to the dual hooker tactic, the more mobile forwards starting in the heat with the power players coming on late to close it out.
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@tubbyj said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
So not the worst U20 team of all time?
Standard of competition is really weak this year. Obviously.
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@akan004 said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Not winning the final lineout before HT and conceding the try on HT could prove to be costly for NZ.
That was such a dumb decision by Letiu. Throw to the front and kick the ball out.
It's hard to know what to make of this performance. Great that NZ won and they defended their goal line well but France made a lot of mistakes (handling errors, forward passes etc). Some of that was down to NZ defensive pressure.
The Wiseman YC was very soft. I've no idea why Pledger was missing from a few rucks as he was way out of frame.
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Having just watched the highlights so far, how confident should we be against the Bok in the final?
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@jimmyb We did draw with them earlier this year and were probably unlucky not to get the win. The way the Juniour Boks disposed of the Aussies did look scary.
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@jimmyb We did draw with them earlier this year and were probably unlucky not to get the win. The way the Juniour Boks disposed of the Aussies did look scary.
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https://twitter.com/WorldRugby/status/1945544712775241758
Gregan would have been happy with that pass.
@Kirwan said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
https://twitter.com/WorldRugby/status/1945544712775241758
Gregan would have been happy with that pass.
Oudenryn looks like he's come straight from the pub.
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The French really fluffed their lines. They will be kicking themselves.
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.
@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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@SBW1 said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
@jimmyb We did draw with them earlier this year and were probably unlucky not to get the win. The way the Juniour Boks disposed of the Aussies did look scary.
But it was only Australia :man_shrugging:
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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.
That’s now 7 wins straight for the Baby Boks over the Baby Blacks in the junior World Cup. Bogey team.
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We all knew that the props would be a weakness, especially after Logan Wallace was injured. I didn't think that NZ played poorly but the SA defence was brutal at times.
@Bovidae from a couple of articles I’ve 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.
“ We’ve 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.”
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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We all knew that the props would be a weakness, especially after Logan Wallace was injured. I didn't think that NZ played poorly but the SA defence was brutal at times.
@Bovidae scrum was a gimme penalty for the Boks for most of the game. You can’t win if you can’t 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 didn’t do it enough to tire the Boks out.
Pead will be a Springbok in the next 2 years.
