WR U20 Championship 2025
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Just going back to the 2019 squad. Which finished 7th. Plenty of players have developed well out of it. Poor performance at U20s level doesn't mean guys should be totally written off.
NZ Under 20 squad named for World Rugby Under 20 Championship - RUGBY HEARTLAND
New Zealand Under 20 squad named for World Rugby Under 20 Championship
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@SouthernMann said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Just going back to the 2019 squad. Which finished 7th. Plenty of players have developed well out of it. Poor performance at U20s level doesn't mean guys should be totally written off.
Yeah, the 2019 team has a considerable amount of future All Blacks. A lot of it has to do with tactics: in that tournament, Philpott tried to implement a kicking game, with Burke at 10 and Forbes at 15, rather than go for a more typical counter-attacking threat like Nanai-Seturo at fullback.
It didn't particularly work, and most players at the time seemed pretty unclear about the game plan.
I think what the Italian captain said after the match was relevant: "we studied a lot". The Italy U20s defended the NZ U20 stack attack very well, constantly sending defensive shooters towards the looping pod coming around. The issue was that the NZ U20s didn't really have a plan B when plan A didn't work. Something to work on.
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Looks like i will just need to watch the 5 minute highlights package on You Tube
Is there a 2 minute package ?
I guess the only real positives you can take away is they were playing the hosts who would have been pretty fired up playing at a home tournament and possibly the heat -
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@Mauss said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
@cgrant said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
This is the poorest NZ team I have ever seen.
The 7-8 loss to Wales in the 2019 U20 tournament was worse, in my opinion. Pretty comparable games, just error after error, with the added insult of actually losing the game.
There were some good players in that Welsh team, who weren’t overawed
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@brodean said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Having the tournament in Italy during the middle of summer is nuts. Temperatures could easily be hitting mid thirties.
Summer Rugby has been around in Europe and North America for many years. The Junior ABs coaching team need to adapt.
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@MiketheSnow said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
There were some good players in that Welsh team, who weren’t overawed
Not trying to diminish the Welsh performance at all, the Wales U20s were incredibly committed that game.
I also think the Italian performance deserves plenty of praise. Some of the scramble defence, in this heat, was genuinely amazing. They were also ferocious at the breakdown. I don't think the NZ U20s were expecting this level of performance.
And, to be honest, after watching Italy in the U20 Six Nations, neither was I. They definitely came prepared to this tournament.
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@Bovidae said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Even allowing for the hot and humid conditions, that was a very unconvincing performance. If Wallace's injury is serious then the scrum will be in big trouble. Some added bulk from the main locks will help.
It was good to see the scrum stability from Wallace, if only for a short while. He looks a proper unit these days.
Vakasiuola will probably start next game (if he's healthy). Has there been any update on Tengblad? I don't even think he's in Italy, right? So that leaves Baker, Sa and McLeod as the other options.
Unfortunately, neither of those are a like-for-like replacement of Tengblad. Not just his height, but Tengblad's work-rate through the middle was sorely missed against Italy, I felt.
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@Mauss said in WR U20 Championship 2025:
Has there been any update on Tengblad? I don't even think he's in Italy, right?
Tengblad was still in the updated squad. The fact that Baker was added suggests one of Vakasiuola or him might not be 100% fit. I don't remember seeing Tengblad after the game but not every squad player was shown on TV.
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This team looked good in winning TRC. Hard ro believe it is the same team
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Care to name the team?Hell Yeah! .... Anything but the "Baby Blacks"
What the? Who came up with this wussy lame name and who endorsed it? For goodness sake. What are we breeding in this country at present. This sappy name sounds like it came from someone with a face full of jewelry and purple and green hair. Fair dinkum, can't we come up with something matching their Haka?
All the players are over 2yrs. old for a start. -
Wouldn't worry about it. No use peaking at the start of the tournament
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It's not a question of peaking, it's a question of low level of skills, lack of tactical cleverness, bad scrummaging, stupid indiscipline and very bad situation reading, particularly in the rucks, where many players stayed out wide when their commitment was needed. Positives : lineout and maul functioned pretty well.
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I’m going to buck this thread’s current trend a bit because I actually think this is the best NZ U20s team in quite a while, and – this might look very idiotic very quickly – I still think they’re going to make the final of this tournament (and yes, they need to be much better than they were against Italy).
My reason for thinking this is (perhaps worryingly) very simplistic: I like the talent and depth in the spine. Yes, the props are looking shaky and there’s not a lot of bulk in the second row. And some of those young loose forwards suddenly looked very much their respective ages. But I still think the spine is the best indicator of whether a team is going to go far or not, and I’m a fan of this cohort’s makeup in those positions.
This is the backline I would like to see against Georgia:
9- Pledger, 10- Cole, 11- Vaenuku, 12- Harvey, 13- Cameron, 14- Kunawave, 15- Solomon.
I want Pledger and Cole to further work on their combination, while I also would like to see Cameron get some game time. Cooper Roberts has played nearly every minute of every game so far, so there needs to be a bit more depth created at 13. The pack will need to front up against the Georgians but I think if they can do that, then the backs should create plenty of opportunities.
