U20 Rugby Championship 2025
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Norton to captain Junior Boks against Pumitas in Gqeberha
Former SA U18 lock and national age-group cricketer Riley Norton will captain the Junior Springboks against Argentina in the opening round of the Rugby Championship U20 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Thursday.
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@Mauss said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Junior Bok team announced. Some interesting selections, with Kyle Smith (WP) getting the nod at 10 and Hlekani on the bench. I'm guessing Foote is looking for impact? I'd hope he isn't underestimating the Pumitas because they bulldozed the Junior Boks twice at the U20 World Cup last year.
Foote's analysis of the Argentina U20s - "We understand and respect their passion, and they are also looking forward to this opportunity to play for their country." - wouldn't fill me with confidence as a Bok supporter. Always a passionate bunch, eh, those Argentines?
Anyway, should be an interesting game.
Fairly sure no team is being underestimated given the poor SA u20 results last year. Respect being given to the Pumitas. Junior bok sides have traditionally been a bit underwhelming.
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It would interesting to know how many were in the 2023 Aust U18 team that played the NZ Schools. NZ has only 8 players from that team (there are others injured or unavailable).
Australia U20
1 Finn Baxter (ACT Brumbies, Gungahlin Eagles)
2 Ollie Barrett (Western Force, Associates RUFC)
3 Kaleb Ah-Colt (NSW Waratahs, Randwick)
4 Eamon Doyle (c) (NSW Waratahs, Sydney University)
5 Joe Mangelsdorf (NSW Waratahs, Sydney University)
6 Jacob Veiru (NSW Waratahs, Eastern Suburbs)
7 Eli Langi (ACT Brumbies, Tuggeranong Vikings)
8 Beau Morrison (ACT Brumbies, Sydney University)
9 Hwi Sharples (NSW Waratahs, Sydney University)
10 Joey Fowler (NSW Waratahs, Sydney University)
11 Sid Harvey (Australia Sevens)
12 Boston Fakafanua (Western Force, Wests Scarborough)
13 Liam Grover (NSW Waratahs, Sydney University)
14 Cooper Watters (NSW Waratahs, Eastern Suburbs)
15 Shane Wilcox (ACT Brumbies, Tuggeranong Vikings)16 Lipina Ata (ACT Brumbies, Gungahlin Eagles)
17 Trevor King (Queensland Reds, Souths)
18 Nick Hill (NSW Waratahs, Warringah)
19 Charlie Brosnan (Queensland Reds, Brothers)
20 Toby Brial (NSW Waratahs, Eastern Suburbs)
21 James Martens (Queensland Reds, GPS Rugby Club)
22 Joe Dillon (ACT Brumbies, Canberra Royals)
23 Nick Conway (Queensland Reds, Wests Bulldogs) -
@Bovidae said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
It would interesting to know how many were in the 2023 Aust U18 team that played the NZ Schools.
This is the lineup from the first game between NZ Schools and Australia U18 in 2023:
So I count 8 players who were part of that team, including the reserves (Barrett; Brosnan; Wilcox; Ata; Brial; Fakafonua; Fowler; Sharples), who will feature tomorrow. Similar to the NZ team, in other words.
Interestingly, there's only 3 players from the 2024 U18 team - Eli Langi; Nick Hill; and Nick Conway - despite the fact that they were pretty dominant. Cooper Watters was part of the excellent Australia 7s team at the Global Youth Sevens, so he'll be another one to watch.
I haven't seen the NZ U20 team play so I'm not sure how they'll go. It looks like they'll be able to play an expansive game, with dry and relatively warm conditions. I still think NZ age grade teams have an edge through the quality of their passing and running game, especially on hard and dry pitches, so they should go reasonably well. With the U20 TRC being in Gqeberha and the U20 World Cup being in Italy in July, this should be the first U20 season in quite some time where the conditions should be consistently suited for running rugby.
The Junior Wallabies will want to tighten up in defence, as the game against the Japan U23 XV showed there was a lot of space out wide and a lack of defensive communication amongst the back three. I'm not sure how good Sid Harvey's defence is on the wing, but he'll be tested.
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I couldn't remember the name of the Aust TH prop (Goddard) who gave some of the NZS LH props a real working over in the scrum. But he's not there. Finn Baxter is the son of Al. I'm going to be interested to see how the tight five holds up with a view to the U20 WC.
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The officials for the first four games.
New Zealand vs Australia at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha - 14h00
Referee: Christopher Allison (SARU)
Assistant Referees: Thomas Bertazza (Arg), Phumzile Mbewu
Television Match Official: Ben CrouseSouth Africa vs Argentina at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha - 16h10
Referee: Todd Petrie (NZ)
Assistant Referees: George Myers (Aus), Sean Muller
Television Match Official: Ben CrouseNew Zealand vs Argentina at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha - 14h00
Referee: George Myers (Aus)
Assistant Referees: Christopher Allison (SARU), Sean Muller
Television Match Official: Quinton ImmelmanSouth Africa vs Australia at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha - 16h10
Referee: Thomas Bertazza (Arg)
Assistant Referees: Todd Petrie (NZ), Phumzile Mbewu
Television Match Official: Quinton Immelman -
HT score: 17-10 in favour of Australia U20s. More than deserved as well, the NZ U20s are suffering from poor ball-retention (breakdown, lineout) as well as ill discipline. The attack looks okay in phase play but they've had too few opportunities in the opposition 22 due to turnovers.
Two tries were disallowed for the NZ U20s but both decisions were correct (2 knock ons). Letiu has been poor, unfortunately, so Oudenryn might make an earlier appearance than intended. The NZ U20 defence, after a very poor start, has improved but there's massive gaps in the defensive line as well as a poorly-organized pillar defence.
The NZ U20s will have the breeze in their back in the second half, so an opportunity to play for a bit more territory.
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Streaming on Rugby Pass TV:
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New Zealand vs Australia
