U20 Rugby Championship 2025
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@SouthernMann from the outside looking in i would say Inch isnt in the frame this year. Mika had a better U20 campaign. Then again, i thought other players had better campaigns then some that made NZ U20 so what would i know 😆
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@Left-Right-Out-0 said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
@SouthernMann from the outside looking in i would say Inch isnt in the frame this year. Mika had a better U20 campaign. Then again, i thought other players had better campaigns then some that made NZ U20 so what would i know 😆
I really liked the 9-10-12 combo of Pledger, Muliaina and Harvey. Had a nice mix to it.
I think Muliaina has the potential to be a fully contracted Lander probably in 2027. His last year eligible for the U20s. Big potential that guy.
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Does anyone know more about Xavier Treacy’s background? He looks to have come over from the Melbourne Rebels system and seems, by all accounts, to have lived most of his life in Australia (an Instagram-post from the Melbourne Harlequins club mentions that he played for them “from Under 8 to 18”, with Treacy “moving to NZ in 2024”.)
I’m assuming he has Kiwi origins or parentage? Otherwise I’m not completely sure how he would be eligible for the side. World Rugby U20 tournaments have, as far as I know, similar eligibility-criteria to the senior sides (i.e. parentage or 5-year residency).
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@Mauss said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Does anyone know more about Xavier Treacy’s background?
I'd never heard of him. As you say, WR has stricter eligibility rules compared to SANZAAR. Holland and Brial were selected to play in 2022 (in Aust) but wouldn't have been able to go to a WR-sanctioned tournament.
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Now that we know the make-up of the NZ U20 squad for the U20 Rugby Championship, it makes sense to take a look at some of their upcoming opponents and gauge their respective strengths and weaknesses. I recently watched some SA rugby age grade games – specifically, the SA U18 game against England U18 from late 2024 and the two recent SA U20 trial games against Georgia U20 from February ’25 – and I thought it might be interesting to share some thoughts on these games as well as some broader facets of SA age grade rugby.
Predicting the future performances of the SA U20 side might be one of the harder tasks within age grade rugby. While other U20 teams’ success will often depend on their ability to get the set-piece right, the South Africans very rarely suffer in either the scrum or the lineout. While this would seem like an excellent platform for continuous age grade dominance, in reality it has only led to a series of unpredictable tournament results.
Four tournament wins (1999, 2002, ’05 and ’12) followed by a whole heap of third place finishes (12 out of 26) with the occasional slip out of the top 4 (’01, ’11, ’24). It’s not particularly easy to explain why South Africa has only won 1 U20 tournament since 2008, as they’ve had some really good teams (2014; 2019) which came up just short. In these cases, the mind often wanders towards certain mental hurdles, which is not that surprising considering that they’ve 9 lost semi-finals at the U20 tournament. South African commentators typically explain this lack of finals success through a number of factors, such as rugby politics, poor coaching and, perhaps most prominently, the lack of meaningful competition for players aged 18 to 20 between schools rugby and provincial rugby.
All of which is fair enough, I suppose, but I don’t know enough about these things to get into those factors. Here, I just want to look at some of their players coming through in this cohort, their playing style under new coach Kevin Foote and whether these innovations might get them over some of their historical hurdles.
The problem of predictability
One potential reason for the SA U20s lack of ‘ultimate’ success since 2012 has been their predictability. Close your eyes and imagine, if you will, a stereotypical South African rugby team. What do you see? I see a ball being hoofed into the air, travelling a seemingly endless distance. I see a 12, built like a flanker, winning turnovers and ignoring his outsides. I see a front-row, spending as much time grinding their opposites into mush during a scrum as they are getting their breath back while the play is going on at the other end of the field. I see a defence rushing up and in. And I see an attack, throwing passes to the floor because nobody in the backline knows where they’re supposed to be.Now this is somewhat harsh (apologies to readers from the Republic). But when watching that SA U18 match against England U18, it was difficult not to get a sense of déjà vu. The young South Africans won their game, to be clear, with their talented first five, Vusi Moyo, possessing a howitzer of a boot which he used to good effect. The SA U18s played a pressure game, mirroring their senior side’s up-and-in rush defence, while the front-row was putting the screws on their counterparts. But there was also a consistent lack of ambition, a refusal to use the backline as a platform for attack, and no willingness to try different things in attack. Again, to be clear once more, that is a perfectly fine way to play the game of rugby. But unpredictable, it’s not. With a bit more starch and a bit more luck from the ref, the English U18s would fancy their chances in a rematch.
It’s not hard to see how that trickles down into the next level. At U20 level, lots of other countries have big packs. Last year, we saw the Argentineans and English have senior-sized forward groups and both teams were able to effectively counter the South African pressure game, after which the SA U20s struggled to get their game going. One crucial factor for future South African success at U20 level, in other words, will be their ability to play in a different way when facing teams who can match them in the forwards and at set-piece time.
It's at this point where the appointments of Kevin Foote as the new Junior Bok coach, as well as Johan Ackermann as coaching consultant, is starting to make sense. Looking at their two recent matches against Georgia U20, it does appear as if Foote, the former Melbourne Rebels head coach, wants the Junior Boks to play with a bit more width and ambition. Foote developed a strong attacking identity at the Rebels, while Ackermann was responsible (alongside Swys de Bruin) for creating the most attacking SA Super Rugby side in recent history, the 2013-’17 Lions side. It looks part of a greater plan concocted by, who else, Rassie Erasmus to tackle one of the most consistent issues of the SA U20 side, their disjointed attack and all-too predictable game plan.
The fact remains, of course, that these were trial games against Georgia – with a lot of rotation and subs throughout the two games – so there’s limits to what it tells us. But one would expect that Foote and his coaching staff would use these games to give his players a sense of what they’re trying to achieve. Foote said as much afterwards: “We have a better understanding of how we want to play, although there still a lot of work to be done on the training pitch. [...] Our focus is on real intensity, speed, physicality, set pieces, and match management. The U20 Rugby Championship will be a really good and exciting challenge.”
Early in the second game against Georgia, we could catch a few glimpses of what Foote and Ackermann are trying to instil within the side:
Clear intention to keep the ball alive in attack
There’s the use of backdoor passes and offloads to keep the attacking movement going and to create space for the winger to finish. The movement isn’t particularly clean – with the prop’s offload being both blind and hitting the floor – but it ultimately worked. Furthermore, it shows genuine attacking ambition, something which the SA U20s have often lacked.
When going beyond the first pod of forwards, the SA U20s often found success and were able to break the Georgian line of defence. Forwards are clearly being encouraged by the coaches to distribute and even offload, which was something the Georgian defenders found difficult to deal with:
The ball consistently moves beyond the first pod, catching the Georgian defence off guard
The South African attack in a wide-wide set-up from set-piece. Again the ability of the SA forwards to offload is crucial for the score.
So far, so good. There are, however, still some teething issues with this new gameplan, closely interlinked with some deeper structural issues within SA rugby. Three issues came to the fore in these two games. First of all, a more expansive gameplan requires a lot of skill-work and decision-making, both for forwards and backs. Throughout the games, this caused a relatively high-error rate, through knock-ons, forward passes and wayward offloads, as players weren’t necessarily expecting some of the more impromptu decisions made by their teammates on attack.
Dropped ball after lineout
After some early go-forward, the attack quickly loses structure, leading to muddled running lines and a forward pass
The support runner isn’t expecting the tip-on pass, leading to a knock-on
A second issue is closely related to the first and refers to the more ingrained habits of South African players. The different nature of the two games against Georgia made this clear: while the SA U20s never trailed in the second game, in the first match the score was much closer, not in a small part due to some interesting calls by the Georgian ref. But whereas the SA U20s became more and more daring in the second game as their lead grew – even starting to offload and go wide in their own half – they became more and more conservative and narrow in the first game, when they started chasing the lead and experiencing time pressure. This shows the still- ingrained habit within South African rugby players: when the going gets tough, they start looking for the physical confrontation, taking one-off carries and chasing box-kicks like there’s no tomorrow.
Foote and Ackermann will be wary of the scenario that their players abandon the expansive gameplan at the pointy end of games, as it was clear that their wide approach was working well. Herein also lies an opportunity for their opponents. Opposition teams will look to build an early lead against this team and sucker them into more predictable – and more easy to defend – gameplans. The ghost of predictability will not easily be vanquished.
The first five issue
A third and final issue which became apparent, both throughout these games and different teams throughout the SA rugby pyramid, is that of the first five-eight and their lack of control. The typical habit within South African teams is to play off 9 and go through the forwards. This again is not a problem per se, only when the opposition team is able to predict and counter the style of play, after which it is mainly up to the 10 to find alternative ways of steering the team around the park.I was reminded of this issue when recently watching the URC, with the Lions facing the Glasgow Warriors up in Scotland. There was a terrible wind, which dictated much of the play. The Lions, facing into the wind in the 1st half, struggled to get out of their half and were constantly under attacking pressure from the Warriors. But what was most noticeable was the lack of urgency from the Lions. An entire half passed and I still had no idea who the Lions 10 was (it was Gianni Lombard, by the way, typically a fullback). Rather than take control and try different things in order to get the attack going, there was remarkably little intervention from the first five.
In the three games that I watched – SA U18 vs. England U18; two games of SA U20 against Georgia U20 – there were three different 10s: Vusi Moyo (SA U18), Matthew Coetzee (SA U20, Georgia 1), and Dominic Malgas (SA U20, Georgia 2). Both Moyo and Coetzee have good passes on them but they have a tendency to stand quite deep and be rather selective with their interventions rather than have the ball in their hands as much as possible. Malgas did better in this regard but it remains to be seen whether he can keep demanding the ball when the side is chasing the game rather than cruising with a lead.
This is an issue for the SA U20s, as both Foote and Ackermann enjoyed their greatest success with sides who were largely defined by a ball-dominant first five who could play flat to the line: for Foote, Carter Gordon at the Rebels and for Ackermann, Elton Jantjies at the Lions. It also makes sense for Foote and Ackermann to emphasize this style of play more and demand more involvement from their 10, as it looks like the back three poses the biggest attacking strength of this SA U20 side. Gilermo Mentoe (15), Cheswill Jooste (14) and Chijindu Okonta (11) are all genuinely rapid, combine well with each other and are able to cut opposition defences open. It makes sense that the coaches want the ball in the hands of these players, who can break the line and make things happen out of nothing.
Cheswill Jooste is lethal against a fragmented defence
Jooste with the break before passing inside to his 9. Kicking poorly against this back three is a bad idea
Gilermo Mentoe with the excellent line and finish
Mentoe combining the two-handed carry, swerve and searing pace, mirroring another particularly effective U20 fullback from recent past, Will Jordan
Mentoe breaking the line with ease once again by carrying the ball in two hands
Okonta can use his length to step out of tackles and slip through
You want to get them involved in the game as much as possible, not just on the counter-attack and kick-chase, but in general play and through set-piece strikes as well. But this requires a 10 who is able to get them the ball and organize an attack which puts them into space.
Foote’s choice for 10 might then fall to utility back Dominic Malgas, as he looks to be a player who is most able and willing to play flat and attack the line. Then again, he might opt for the value of experience and turn to 2024 Junior Bok Liam Koen, who wasn’t involved in the Georgia tour and represents a more typical SA 10 who stands quite deep and kicks for distance. Will Foote and Ackermann go for the predictable and conservative? Or will they dare to wade into more untested waters in their search for the first SA U20 tournament success since 2012? We will find out at the U20 TRC.
Next up: the Junior Wallabies will be taking on a Japanese U23 XV later today, which will provide a first glimpse of Chris Whitaker’s plans for the side.
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@Mauss there is no way you arent involved in the U20 setup or some other team with the amount of analysis you do. Id put my leg on it😆
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@Left-Right-Out-0 said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
@Mauss there is no way you arent involved in the U20 setup or some other team with the amount of analysis you do. Id put my leg on it😆
Now I'm just curious about what's going to happen with your leg. Your name better not be Anton Lubchenko.
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The game between the Junior Wallabies and the Japan U23 XV ended up 54-26 in favour of the Australian U20s. At halftime it wasn’t looking particularly good for the hosts as they were down 12-19, conceding 3 maul tries. They won the second half 42 to 7, though, as the Japanese players made too many errors ball-in-hand, overplayed in their own half and conceded multiple turnover tries.
Not sure there’s a huge amount to learn about this game, as Whitaker used rolling subs, rotating the players throughout the match. What is painstakingly obvious, though, is that Eli Langi, the Aussie blindside flank, is one hell of a player. Great in the lineout (massive wingspan), dominant in defence and an excellent decision-maker in attacking transition. He was really good for the Australian U18s last year as well, so it’s good to see that he’s seemingly continued his great form.
Not quite sure what to make of the Junior Wallabies yet. But they better shore up their maul defence because otherwise they're not going to win too many games.
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The second edition of the southern hemisphere tournament will bring together the best young rugby stars from South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, and Australia, with double-headers taking place on 1, 6 and 11 May at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Thursday, 1 May
14h00: New Zealand v Australia (local time)
16h10: Junior Boks v ArgentinaTuesday, 6 May
14h00: New Zealand v Argentina
16h10: Junior Boks v AustraliaSunday, 11 May
14h00: Argentina v Australia
16h10: Junior Boks v New Zealand -
@Mauss Thanks for your posts on the Junior Boks. I think we will have a much stronger team next year. At least this year we have very good coaches which will make a massive difference.
SA Rugby Academy squad named for first camp of 2025
The Junior Springbok season will kick off in all earnest with the invitation of a big group of players to the first SA Rugby Under-20 Academy camp, which will be held at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport from 26 January to 16 February.
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@OomPB said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
I think we will have a much stronger team next year.
You don't rate this year's group particularly highly? While I don't know the players very well, to me they did show glimpses of being a good side.
Foote and Ackermann will put their soft skills to the test and they'll need to fix some of their lineout issues, but who knows what can happen if the team gels and the game plan clicks.
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They havent select the final group. I do know some of the schoolboy players from the Western Cape. Many of them were still in school last year playing in the Winelands schools. Riley Norton a double SA Schools player (rugby & cricket) is one of them and probably captain. He is in the PSdT mould.
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@OomPB said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Riley Norton a double SA Schools player (rugby & cricket) is one of them and probably captain. He is in the PSdT mould.
I've seen Norton play a few games now, for Paul Roos, SA U18s, and U20s. He certainly seems to be an industrious player. That's some high praise, though, comparing him to Pieter-Steph.
The other U20s lock who was quite noticeable was Morné Venter (Lions). Looks to be very mobile and has a good offloading game. He could be a valuable asset in a more expansive Junior Bok attack.
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As I’ve said in an earlier post, due to the nature of the game against the Japan U23 XV with its many substitutions throughout the match, I’m not sure we can really conclude anything about this particular group of Australian U20 players and how they will perform in the U20 Rugby Championship. But one thing which did stand out in the game was the quality of the Japanese attack, especially in the first half when Japan U23 XV had a lot of possession. As such, it allows us to take a closer look at some aspects of the Junior Wallaby defence, how they set up, what they try to achieve and where it is potentially vulnerable as well.
The Japanese attacking profile
But first, let’s quickly take a look at what the Japanese U23s threw at this defence. I’d argue that their attacking profile was built on 4 prongs of attack, 2 kicking and 2 with ball-in-hand. In terms of kicking, they either went to (1) contestable box-kicks from 9 and wiper kicks from 10, in order to retrieve the high-ball and attack against a fragmented defence, or to (2) long kicks looking for space to gain territory. In terms of ball-in-hand, they sought to (1) attack from edge to edge through double passes out the back, in order to outflank Aussie defence, or they (2) executed switch plays targeting the space close to the ruck in an attempt to exploit the potentially weaker connection between the pillar defender and the first defender outside the ruck.Effective wipers kick leading to line-break
The Japanese U23s were consistently able to reach the edge by standing deeper and passing out the back
Targeting the space close to the ruck, exposed by overchasing defenders
The Japanese U23 attack showcased a lot of small variations, the goal of which was to fracture defensive connections and prevent the Junior Wallaby defensive line from bringing cohesive line-speed. Because while line-speed is an effective tool for any defence, when defenders start hesitating about what the attack is going to do, it has the potential to backfire. Once defenders start coming up at different speeds, gaps start to appear which can then be exploited by the attack, for example, by using depth and a short passing game to expose isolated defenders.
As the game wore on and the Japan U23 XV started feeling more comfortable with moving the ball through the hands in order to find space, it also became more apparent how the Junior Wallaby defence found it difficult to realign its defensive numbers on the fly, leading to overlaps out wide.
Here, we see how the Japanese attack has created a 3-on-1 attacking overlap on the edge by going from side to side after the restart, with the number 11, Cooper Watters, now in complete no man’s land and looking to defend 20 metres of space against 3 attackers.
Unfortunately for the Japanese, Ito’s final pass doesn’t hit his target, allowing the Aussie U20s to kill the attacking momentum. Still, the space is quite clearly there and with better execution, Japan U23 would have had a line-break, with attacking support on their feet.
Junior Wallaby defence
Line-speed, in other words, can be a double-edged sword, especially in the early stages of its implementation with a team when defenders aren’t always in sync, neither with each other nor with the system’s requirements. This became apparent in two ways during the game against Japan U23, namely with the midfield being outflanked a bit too easily and, secondly, with the wingers not always seemingly being clear on what is expected of them in defence.This brings us to the second part, which is what the Australian U20s were trying to achieve with their defence. The Junior Wallabies look to employ a ‘push drift defence’, where the defensive line comes up in order to close the attacking space while simultaneously drifting to the side in a slight diagonal angle, to soak up any numbers from a wide attack. You have designated tacklers who lead the defensive line – for example, the third defender outside the ruck, typically a loose forward, is charged with taking down the ball carrier in the first attacking pod – flanked by defensive support following slightly behind, to be in a position to contest the breakdown. Similar defensive pods make up the rest of the defensive line.
The defence then acts in pods as a way to mirror the attacking pod system, closing up the attacking space in an organized manner. If effectively timed and structured, the more the attack passes the ball out the back, the less time and space they have, as the defensive pods move more quickly from north to south while the attack goes east to west passing the ball. A good working example of this can be seen here.
The defence keeps moving up as the ball is moved by the attack, with defensive pressure eventually causing the knock-on
Another example of this can be seen in the two pictures below, first with Toby Brial (8) leading the line after the first pass outside the ruck, and secondly with Fakafanua and Grover (12 and 13) both coming up as the ball moves past the first receiver.
In this instance, however, the defensive set-up doesn’t work so well, as the Japanese attack starts from quite deep and the Aussie defensive push is laboured, which means that the attack can reach the edge through two passes before the defensive line has even reached them, leading to an easy line-break out wide.
The Japanese winger puts in a chip kick that ends up going too far
So what is going wrong here? Two things stand out: first of all, Fakafanua and Grover need to be quicker in reaching the attacking line, to at least put pressure on the Japanese skill execution. Here, the Japanese attackers have all the time in the world to put Tanaka, the 14, into space, as both Fakafanua and Grover stop at a certain point before they reach their opposites. What the Aussie midfield needs to do is keep moving forwards and close the attackers’ space.
And secondly, the wingers in the Junior Wallaby defensive system are seemingly used as “rovers”, acting as instinctive decision-makers in defence with a licence to try and ‘kill’ the attack. You can see them at times acting as extra sweepers if they think the attack is going to kick while, at other times, they are acting as defensive shooters, sprinting out of line in order to block passing lanes or intercept the ball. In this instance, however, Rubens, the Aussie 14, doesn’t really do anything, coming in narrow alongside Fakafanua and Grover while having nobody to mark. In another instance, Rubens decides to jump out of the line in an attempt at intercepting the ball, which he fails to do.
Rubens in defensive no man’s landAgain, it is a rather desperate play which never looked like it was on. But it also shows how defensively difficult it is for a winger in today’s game, as their interventions often constitute a 14 point-play: get the intercept and race away for the try; get your timing wrong and you’re potentially off the field for 10 minutes while the opposition scores another maul try after being awarded the penalty.
The narrowness of the defensive winger was a problem for much of the first half, which was further exacerbated by a poor alignment between the winger and his fullback. If the winger comes up aggressively, the fullback (or 9 or 10, if they act as sweepers) becomes responsible to guard the space left open, coming up field if play moves in that direction. But in both the example above and here below, there’s acres of space between the winger and the 15, which could be easily exploited by the Japanese second five, Taira, by going to the cross-kick.
See how long the Japanese attacker can run before Wilcox, the Aussie fullback, arrives.
Now imagine Gilermo Mentoe or Stanley Solomon being on the receiving end of this cross field kick. With the amount of time and space afforded here by the Junior Wallaby defence, it’s hard to imagine things ending particularly well.
Summary
As the Australian U20 defence only conceded one try in open play – the other three being scored from the maul – at first glance one would think that the Junior Wallaby defence did its job well. Looking more closely, however, shows that there were some potentially lethal cracks in this defence, which could well be exploited ruthlessly by more potent back threes, with both the NZ U20s and the Junior Boks looking to be well-stocked in this area in 2025. Chris Whittaker will undoubtedly be aware of these frailties and he’ll be trying his utmost to bring across the defensive duties and responsibilities to his midfield and outside backs as clearly as possible.Bringing defensive line-speed can put real pressure on the attacking skillset of the opposition but poor defensive execution of such speed can backfire as well, leaving an abundance of space for the opposition attack to exploit. The key, as always, is communication, especially between those players who need to protect the seams of the defensive line (pillar defenders at the ruck, edge defenders, sweepers at the back) as any attack will seek to exploit any opportunities there. The Junior Wallabies will do well to cultivate the connections between those players, so they’re fully aware of each others' roles at all times.
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Sevens star Harvey added to Australia squad for the U20s Rugby Championship
Australia U20s head coach Chris Whitaker has named a 31-player squad for next month's Rugby Championship U20s in South Africa.
