The young guns of world rugby will be itching to get the tournament underway in Stellenbosch on Saturday the 24th of June, and our rugby scribe offers his insight into the competition and which sides he thinks will impress.
Tournament Format
The round-robin phase of the competition will feature three pools with each side playing the other three teams in their pool. The round-robin phase will be played on Saturday the 24th of June, Tuesday the 29th of June and Tuesday the 4th of July.
The tournament then enters its knockout stage with the top team from each of the three pools joined by the best second-placed finisher from all of the three pools in the semi-finals, while the remaining eight teams play for the rest of the places depending on where they finished in their respective pools. The first round of knockout fixtures will be played on the 9th of July, with the final and all remaining knockout games being played on the 15th of July.
Pools
Pool A
France, Wales, New Zealand, and Japan
Pool A is set to be a very interesting one with France and New Zealand the two sides most fancied to claim top spot. They were the dominant force in Under 20 rugby prior to COVID with Le Blue winning the 2018 and 2019 editions of the tournament.
New Zealand also have an illustrious history in the competition and they are the most successful team in history winning six tournaments. They struggled at the last two editions of the tournament, managing a fourth place finish in 2018 and a seventh-placed finish in 2019, which was their worst ever performance.
Wales and Japan are likely to make up the numbers in this pool with the Welsh , who did beat New Zealand to the semi-final berths in 2019, having a dire 2023 Six Nations campaign in which they finished at the foot of the table with no wins, while Japan are one of the newly promoted sides and play most of their rugby against tier two teams.
Looking at New Zealand’s build-up, the Kiwis don’t have much to write home about as they drew 1-1 with Australia in their two match series. They were actually pretty lucky to win that series having had the Australians pepper their line with attack after attack. The Kiwis would manage to hold on to an 18-19 win in the end.
France have enjoyed a better build up to the Under 20 Championship having finished the Under 20 6 Nations as runners-up with four wins from five games. As always, they have a very talented young squad who are more than capable of defending their title.
Pool B
Australia, England, Fiji, and Ireland
Pool B is certainly the pool of death at this year’s Championship with Under 20 6 Nations champions Ireland, a very handy Australian side who really impressed against New Zealand in their recent two match series, an unpredictable English outfit and an ever improving Fiji side all looking to advance to the next round.
The favourites in the Pool will be the Irish whose grass roots program is starting to bear fruit as is evident by their recent Under 20 6 Nations campaign that saw them beat all in sundry on their way to securing their second successive title. They registered some very impressive results during the tournament beating Scotland 7-82 and England 26-24.
Australia are probably the side that will give the Irish the most problems in this pool. While they haven’t played as much rugby as the Irish in 2023, they have impressed when they’ve taken to the field. They beat their New Zealand counterparts 36-24 in the first of their two match series before going down 18-19 in the second fixture.
England surprisingly come into this one as massive underdogs as they have had a pretty poor 2023. They had one of their worst Under 20 6 Nations campaigns to date finishing fourth while suffering defeats to Ireland and France. They also suffered a shock loss to Georgia a few weeks back going down 40-38 to the Eastern Europeans. They managed to bounce back from that defeat with a comfortable win but the English don’t seem to be the force at Under 20 level that they once were.
The Fijians are the rank outsiders here and they haven’t had much of a build up due to the Under 20 Oceania Championship not going ahead this year. They do have some real talent in their side with a couple of Fijian Drua squad members amongst their ranks.
Pool C
Argentina, Georgia, Italy, and South Africa
Pool C is probably the most intriguing of the bunch with usual Under 20 heavyweights South Africa and Argentina paired with the two most improved sides in the age group, Georgia and Argentina.
The South Africans will have hosting rights for this one and this is a major coup for them with their last Under 20 Championship victory coming back in 2012 when they were tournament hosts. They were perennial third place finishers pre-COVID finishing the 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions of the tournament in third. They haven’t had too many hit outs this year with their only real warm-up fixtures coming against domestic opposition.
Argentina are probably the next favorite in this pool with Los Pumas juniors producing some good showings in the years prior to the tournament being postponed due to COVID. They finished the 2019 edition of the tournament in fourth having lost the third-placed play-off to South Africa.Like the South Africans, the Argentines have had a very lowkey build up with no real notable fixtures.
While the South Africans and Argentines have been rather quiet on the warm-up front, the Georgians have not been as the baby Lelos registered a shock 40-38 win over England in the first of their two match series against the 6 Nations side. They did go on to lose the second fixture but that win will give them loads of confidence headed into this one.
Another team that has hit headlines for all the right reasons in 2023 is the Italains. They enjoyed a brilliant 6 Nations campaign finishing the tournament in third-place. They beat Scotland and Wales and gave the French a massive scare going down by just a solitary point to their neighbours.
Verdict: South Africa
This is set to be the most interesting Under 20 Championship yet with a number of teams capable of lifting the trophy. I am leaning towards the South Africans here. They have a solid side and homeground advantage will be massive for them.
