U20 Rugby Championship 2025
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Chris Whitaker has made 8 changes to the starting XV so he's going down the rotation route as well.
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Junior Springboks rotate team for Australia clash
Junior Springbok coach Kevin Foote has made several rotational changes to his starting line-up and included four players who played for the SA U20s last year for their second Rugby Championship Under-20 match against Australia at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Tuesday.
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NZ are looking much better when they retain possession and play with tempo. That said, this Arg team is much weaker than the team from the first game. Poor discipline from Arg and getting penalised out of the game.
On the negative side, Arg have scored both times they have been in the NZ's 22.
HT: NZ 47-14
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@W32 said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
SA playing really dumb rugby
Still just way too conservative, in my view. Neither Moyo nor Smith have shown much at 10 during these two games. I liked Malgas at first five in the games against Georgia. At least he offers something different.
I felt that was a really disappojnting performance from the Junior Boks, especially since I had high hopes they would play with a bit more variation under the guidance of Foote and Ackermann. Maybe this jolts them into buying into the game plan.
Great performance again by the Junior Wallabies, though. They are finishing these games very strongly. Great loose forward corps: Langi, Cleverley, Morrisson, Brial, Robinson. I was really impressed with Cleverley in this game, unfortunate that he had to leave early.
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@Bovidae said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
The final score was 75-21 (11 tries to 3). NZ only added to the score in the last 20 mins. The scrum still needs to improve, and too many sloppy passes.
Probably not a whole lot can be taken out of this game for the reasons mentioned above but Tofilau, McLeod and Woodley definitely took their chances. I thought the defensive effort was better as well, although Argentina didn't offer a whole lot on attack.
If anything, steps in the right direction.
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I thought that Woodley was inaccurate in his support play/cleaning for much of the 1st half. Fale needs to start at 7 as he gives you a ball carrier and is good at the breakdown.
Both halfbacks threw some poor passes.
All three Arg tries were from NZ mistakes.
You would assume the best XV starts against SA so that will be interesting to see who gets selected.
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@W32 said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Australia win by 5 points
It was quite the comeback by the Joeys. Their accuracy at the collisions improved significantly in the second half.
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@Mamuka said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Hello guys, what’s going on with New Zealand rugby players? Why don’t they seem to want to play defense anymore? I’m from Georgia, and while we are far behind New Zealand in terms of skill level,but our players are willing to die for every tackle. They play with rush defense, and give it everything.
I don’t understand what has happened to the New Zealanders. Where is all the aggression? Don’t get me wrong—I’m from Georgia, but I’ve been a die-hard All Blacks fan since childhood. It really saddens me to watch New Zealand’s younger players over the past 7–8 years and feel like they’re no better than the top players from any other nation at this level.
My initial guess is they're being taught to reduce the risk of being carded for high tackles. Unless someone's running straight at you, it's very difficult to dominate the advantage line without risking head contact whilst attackers are permitted to drop their body height in the last step.
So I'd say they're being coached that way.
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@antipodean think this at younger levels above the line is penalisable?
Tackle Height%20%E2%80%93%20Sanction%20PK.)
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@Bovidae said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
Fale needs to start at 7 as he gives you a ball carrier and is good at the breakdown.
Both halfbacks threw some poor passes.
I think Fale is being used off the bench for conditioning reasons. He plays with huge energy but I don't think he has the engine right now to go more than 40 minutes at that pace.
I thought Sinton was a bit hesitant and slow in his play at times, waiting too long to release the ball. Great grubber to send Kunawave away, though. He does seem to be made of the right stuff, so I'm sure he'll pick up the pace. Tamati was somewhat erratic when he came on but I liked his attacking vision.
But it's silly to be too critical when they put on 75 points. I'm glad they've shown some real attacking potency. Some of the handling especially I thought was superb.
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@taniwharugby good point - I'd forgotten about that!
Australia U20s confirm side for second U20s Rugby Championship game against South Africa
