2016 World Rugby U20 Championship

[WaterboySA]

10's a good player. Give him a break, he's gonna do great things. AND the reserve 9...actually a few of them. No we don't have the Du Preez twins that has to do everything......this is a team.

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Let me stir a bit.....where's all the England fans? I saw the much acclaimed new hero of England rugby....gorgeous hair!! Did he wear make-up???

PS: Hope this doesn't come back to bite me!

 

[saulan]

10's a good player. Give him a break, he's gonna do great things. AND the reserve 9...actually a few of them. No we don't have the Du Preez twins that has to do everything......this is a team.

I'm not saying he isn't a good player, I previously highlighted him for some good attacking rugby and vision, I was just highlighting what his current faults seem to be based on that game. Overall I thought he had a good match.

Let me stir a bit.....where's all the England fans? I saw the much acclaimed new hero of England rugby....gorgeous hair!! Did he wear make-up???

PS: Hope this doesn't come back to bite me!

 

[profitius]

Not a great day.

I placed 3 bets and lost all of them.

I had £1,000 on France beating Argentina by 9 or more points. France were the best side in the 6 nations this year despite the Wales grand slam and Argentina hadn't played any international U20 fixtures since last year's tournament! So of course Out of nowhere they beat one of the pre-tournament favourites...

I had £750 on Wales beating Ireland at half time and at full time. Wales go 17 points up and are cruising, then stop playing any rugby and let an average Irish side get on top of them and lose the game. Awful. Wales were grand slam winners, and Ireland were so average in the 6 nations. ****ing annoying.

I had £500 on Australia beating Scotland by 10 or more points. Australia beat New Zealand two weeks ago and Scotland were crap in the U20 6 nations nations.

On days like this I wonder why I bother. All the research, the clear trends, the logic. Then bang. £2,250 gone. I think U20 Rugby could be just too unpredictable. The teams just don't play enough games to give any indication of strength.

Betting rule number 1. Never back France! I've learned this the hard way down the years. Even when they win, theyll still frighten the life out of ya.


Ireland were anything but average in the 6 nations. They ranged from being brilliant to being terrible and would switch like that during matches. They gave another example yesterday.


Scotland had a good 6 nations and gave England a beating. It wasn't the strongest England side but it's still England. Yesterday some of us thought it would be a tight game with the Scots having a chance to win.

 

[Which Tyler]

Betting rule number 1. Never back France! I've learned this the hard way down the years. Even when they win, theyll still frighten the life out of ya.

I'd temper that - only back France when they've been written off. You'll get good odds; and when they feel there's no expectation and they can cut loose that they'll likely to do just that - 1999 SF will live long in the memory.

 

[unrated]

I wonder why the southern hemisphere does not have an annual u20 tournament comparable to the u20 Six Nations. Could be the u20 rugby championship between Australia, Argentina , New Zealand and South Africa. This tournament will help build consistency towards the u20 rugby world championships and give young players more of a platform to market their skills. Funding is probably a issue as we are more spread out than European countries and traveling costs would have to be covered by the national unions. Nonetheless it should get good tv coverage and that should be able to pay for traveling.

 

[TRF_heineken]

I wonder why the southern hemisphere does not have an annual u20 tournament comparable to the u20 Six Nations. Could be the u20 rugby championship between Australia, Argentina , New Zealand and South Africa. This tournament will help build consistency towards the u20 rugby world championships and give young players more of a platform to market their skills. Funding is probably a issue as we are more spread out than European countries and traveling costs would have to be covered by the national unions. Nonetheless it should get good tv coverage and that should be able to pay for traveling.

When do you suppose this tournament should be held?

Let's take South Africa for instance. In February and March they play Varsity Cup, then they have about a 2-week rest and then they start preparation for the U20 WC tournament. after the WC, most of these guys gets pulled into Currie Cup teams and then it's the end of the season.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

When do you suppose this tournament should be held?

Let's take South Africa for instance. In February and March they play Varsity Cup, then they have about a 2-week rest and then they start preparation for the U20 WC tournament. after the WC, most of these guys gets pulled into Currie Cup teams and then it's the end of the season.

Yeh this is the main difference between SA (And some other countries) where most U20 will be playing for Uni teams, whereas in the NH everyone is pretty much on club contracts and not playing at uni.

 

[WaterboySA]

When do you suppose this tournament should be held?

Let's take South Africa for instance. In February and March they play Varsity Cup, then they have about a 2-week rest and then they start preparation for the U20 WC tournament. after the WC, most of these guys gets pulled into Currie Cup teams and then it's the end of the season.

Same time as the senior tournament, Jnr teams play just before snr teams.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Same time as the senior tournament, Jnr teams play just before snr teams.

So, no time to study or write exams? just rugby, rugby, rugby.

 

[WaterboySA]

So, no time to study or write exams? just rugby, rugby, rugby.

Those are the choices we make.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Those are the choices we make.

If that was the case, then more than half of our players wouldn't have been picked, as they are all Varsity Cup players. Meaning they are students at university... Student Athletes, Student comes first.

 

[Peat]

I can't see why South Africa would feel the need to tinker with a very successful talent production system just to have better chances in this tournament.

 

[unrated]

Under the current system we wont have time for it. Under a global season we would.

 

[TRF_heineken]

I can't see why South Africa would feel the need to tinker with a very successful talent production system just to have better chances in this tournament.

We won't. I think my fellow posters are just having their creative juices flowing while we wait in anticipation for the weekend's test.

June/July is part of one of the longest public holidays in South Africa. From 24 June to 18 July. Most universities are done with exams by 17 june with the exception of the medical faculties. So my guess will be give the guys a bit of rest after the WC and then we can compete during the holiday period. I do concede that holding it after the world cup is kind of defeating the point as teams almost completely change year by year. And to hold it during the rugby championship would conflict with the universities curriculum . If such a tournament would ever be held the best time would be a few weeks after the varsity cup starts then pull out the best players from craven week and varsity cup etc. I realize this is not the pressure we want to put our young players under as this will be taxing on them
but with the money involved it is an important career decision that they will have to make. Rugby is a professional sport after all. After thinking about it i can see why such a tournament dont exist its just too big of a push although this problem will be resolved if they moved the JWC forward a bit. But why would world rugby do that?

That's why we won't stray from this current model. The Varsity Cup is a great product that expands nearly every year, and is a great way of getting the universities involved, getting the necessary funds and promoting student life (something we damn well need after all the Student Protests). And most of our players are students with some sort of funded scholarship for either sport or academics or both.

To have an extra tournament in July - September would be in my view a bit of a redundant item to add to the calendar. Especially since it would be directly after the Craven week and the many School Tournaments all over the country. that is when a lot of the older Baby Boks try to get a spot in the Currie Cup U/21 or senior squads while the fresh new kids look at getting into Varsity Cup teams and/or scholarship programmes, add to that our local "Matric Record Examination" period for those still in school, and then you get the picture that these poor kids won't have time for another tournament.

 

[WaterboySA]

If that was the case, then more than half of our players wouldn't have been picked, as they are all Varsity Cup players. Meaning they are students at university... Student Athletes, Student comes first.

Do you really believe that? I have personal experience of the varsity system(oldest son). Do not for ONE moment think that all athletes are real students. You can do a 3 month course for the duration of the Varsity competition, and after that, for rugby, you don't need to be a student(carlton league in Pretoria). Even more so for the Young Guns competition.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Do you really believe that? I have personal experience of the varsity system(oldest son). Do not for ONE moment think that all athletes are real students. You can do a 3 month course for the duration of the Varsity competition, and after that, for rugby, you don't need to be a student(carlton league in Pretoria). Even more so for the Young Guns competition.

Well yes and no.

My brother was in UJ and was contracted with PWC to study B.Comm Accounting and had a academics bursary. He was in Dromedaris Manskoshuis (when it was still the legendary hostel), and he played varsity cup. Now for him it worked, and some of his friends had the same kind of scholarship. But I do agree with you that a lot of the rugby students are just doing diploma courses and is a short course where you don't even have to go to class.

The current Baby Boks hooker is a first year Law student, so in his case I think he has no choice but to have some time available for his studies. As a Law gruduate myself, I know how much time you need to put in to get through the work.

 

[WaterboySA]

PS: That^^ sounds a bit confrontational......not my meaning, sigh....

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I can't see why South Africa would feel the need to tinker with a very successful talent production system just to have better chances in this tournament.

Ja, sure. I think its more a case of 'it would be nice' having a RC u20 tournament on top if at all possible rather than jeopradizing what we currently have (for the sake of such) which is a high level self-sustaining tournament that bridges the gap between schools and pro rugby and if any of those students don't make it as pro athletes at least they had time at a tertiary institute. Not that all of them are there to study but not all of them are simply toying about either,

We won't. I think my fellow posters are just having their creative juices flowing while we wait in anticipation for the weekend's test.

LOL, @TRF_hieneken, always there to bring us daydreamers back to reality while we wait (impatiently) for the action.

 

[Thingimubob]

Yeah you dropped 9 points from kicks and made silly mistakes which you wouldn't get with an experienced team, especially how we were allowed back into the game. I'll tell you what though that 11 was a real livewire. Looked a class above when he got the ball and without fail beat a defender on every carry. One thing we did very well though was isolate the centers in particular with our big forward carriers and ate up yards so the back row really needs to do more of a sweeping enforcer job for the All Blacks. There's a lot of talent there for sure and they didn't win the 6N for nothing. Scrum was very good as they managed to twist Porter out of shape who would be considered no slouch in the scrum. There's definitely a good set piece base there

yeah 11 seemed to be about a step ahead mentally and about three steps faster than everyone else on the field

Giles is quality, always seems to beat the first man and his pace is immense. Really hoping to see more of him for the Ospreys next season, and reckon he'll be in the Wales team in no time if he puts in the same sort of performances that he is now. He's exactly the type of winger we need atm too I reckon.

 

[GoTheNaki]

Already heard the "Barrett" name too much and there's only been one game. Happy for Nock, I've always said to keep an eye on him.