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IRB Junior World Championships

There are some Irish newspaper reports that the IRFU will pull out of the Junior World Championships from next year. Player welfare is the reason being touted. Five games in seventeen days is a pretty tough schedule to be fair.

I wonder if Ireland underachieving at this level and high costs of participation are the real reasons.
 
The IRB is paying most of the bills (flights, accomodations etc). Some people are saying the IRFU wants to ditch the U20 side and have a 7's side instead...
 
There are some Irish newspaper reports that the IRFU will pull out of the Junior World Championships from next year. Player welfare is the reason being touted. Five games in seventeen days is a pretty tough schedule to be fair.

I wonder if Ireland underachieving at this level and high costs of participation are the real reasons.

I hope we keep the U20 side for 6 nations purposes at least and I would like to see Ireland continuing to participate in the junior world championships, however it seems to be quite repetitive at this level for Ireland. We get a hard group, play some good rugby but end up getting little rewards result wise.
 
It could be a better idea to have a sevens side instead. I mean we only ever see the backs standing out in the under 20s competitions due to our forwards lacking in power and size.
 
Few from Australia, NZ, or South Africa have had much professional rugby. Lima Sopoaga is the only one from NZ with a full time Super Rugby contract, and has been getting regular starts for the Highlanders (only because Colin Slade has been injured for most of the season though). Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett, TJ Perenara and Gareth Anscombe were included in Super Rugby wider training squads, and both Cane and Barrett and have had a few minutes this season. The rest of the squad haven't played any Super Rugby. That is generally the case with NZ Under 20 teams, with most players only making it into Super Rugby a couple of years after playing in the U20 tournament (I can only think of 7 from last years team that are included in Super Rugby squads this year: Moli, Kerr-Barlow, Blyeendaal, Ngatai, Savea, Veainu, Marshall).

The Australia side have Colby Faingaa, Ed Quirk, Michael Hooper, and Tom Kingston that I know have played a limited amount of Super Rugby (Faingaa has played by for the most of the four), though none are regular starters (you could perhaps argue Faingaa was a semi-regular starter). Liam Gill and Dom Shipperly were initially in the squad but were recalled to the Reds due to a number of injuries.

The only South African players that I know have played Super Rugby are Mjekevu and Taute. Taute was a regular starter for the Lions, and was a late inclusion after Lions finished their Super Rugby campaign (he replaced an injured Barry).

How many of them have ITM Cup experience?
 
How many of them have ITM Cup experience?

Piutau, Luatua, Perenara and Tameifuna have played a few minutes between them. Barrett, Anscome, Sopoaga and Cane managed a couple of starts. Thats it i think.
 
Piutau, Luatua, Perenara and Tameifuna have played a few minutes between them. Barrett, Anscome, Sopoaga and Cane managed a couple of starts. Thats it i think.

I think Brad Shields got a few mins off the bench for Wellington as well.
 
Apparently, Brodie Retallick came off the bench for Hawkes Bay.

I think Shields got some decent time off the bench too. Not just a few minutes. He also started against North Harbour.
 
England beat France. England's winger Christian Wade is super quick. Looks as good at XV's as he is at 7's.
 
It could be a better idea to have a sevens side instead. I mean we only ever see the backs standing out in the under 20s competitions due to our forwards lacking in power and size.

Part of the reason behind the IRFUs thinking is they want the players to be spending time in the gym putting on weight at this time of year.
 
England beat France 33 - 18 to secure their place in the final
A last minute intercept try by Gray flattered England a bit in the scoreline - France played well and fought right up to the last second
 
The good thing about the JWC is that you can hear things like "Black seven, hands off!"
 
Jeezzz, this ref in the NZ v Oz game is shocking. I would say he was blatantly bias, but he was the referee from NZ v Wales...

So inconsistant at the breakdown.
 
New Zealand will join England in the final, after a 37-7 win over Australia. Sound like the match was a bit closer than the score suggests, with New Zealand only leading 13-7 at halftime.
 
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New Zealand will join England in the final, after a 37-7 win over Australia. Sound like the match was a bit closer than the score suggests, with New Zealand only leading 13-7 at halftime.

Australia were good for about 50 then collapsed completely.
I hope there's highlights somewhere to show it, because there were some VERY soft tries.
The NZ 10's try springs to mind in particular.
 
Tonights results:
New Zealand beat Australia 37-7,
England beat France 33-18,
South Africa beat Ireand 57-15,
Scotland beat Tonga 30-11,
Argentina beat Italy 12-8,
Fiji beat Wales 34-20
 
yeah on rte teletext the headline in the rugby section was ireland to drop out of rwc u20 junior championship stating the irfu are considering dropping out of the tournament one of the reason why they say is costs and wales and scotland are roumored to follow suit.bad news for junior rugby imo.
 

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