At the launch of the Asteron Life Super Rugby competition today the ARU announced that there would be a new competition for Under 20 players.
Most of the matches would be curtain raisers to Super Rugby games and patrons will get a fascinating preview of future Aussie stars and wonder if there is another Scott Sio, Liam Gill, Sean McMahon or Michael Hooper who will emerge from the age group.
This competition replaces the national championships held in 2014 and 2015. That tournament featured teams from NSW, Queensland and a side from the the rest of Australia, called the Australian Barbarians, plus a visiting team from the Pacific region.
This year each of the five Super Rugby franchises will field it’s own side. They have been training for months already and and are having their own local selection trials, whereas the old Barbarian team had just a few days to get their act together before the nationals in Canberra.
There will be a round-robin of two matches each weekend during the first five rounds of Super Rugby followed by a final on April 2nd between the two best-performing teams after their four matches. The Brumbies and Waratahs have home games that weekend in Round 6 and will hope to host an Under 20 final as a curtain raiser.
Asked why the system was changed, Adrian Thompson, the Aussie Under 20 Head Coach, said exclusively to Green and Gold Rugby:
We always intended going down this path. Ultimately it will become bigger and provide a clearer pathway which will benefit recruitment and retention in the Super Rugby squads.
Now a player can leave school, play for their “State” in U20s and then into the national team. NRC is then a possibility at the end of the year.
He added that the Brumbies, Rebels and Force teams didn’t have these advantages that the two big rugby states had before, and now they do—and why not, because their schoolboy teams already compete at a schoolboy level.
Thompson explained that the new competition is serving two purposes: foremost is to support and develop Super Rugby programmes and through them the Wallabies, and at the same time it will help the BMW Australian Under 20 side in its 2016 World Rugby U20 campaign.
The Aussie U20 selectors will keep an eagle eye on the players and already are:
We have provided GPS units to all Super Rugby teams and also their Under 20s so we think we can monitor the progress of our best young players
Not every match will be a curtain raiser said Thompson:
We filled as many curtain raisers as we could – eight out of ten. NSW and WA will each host one non-curtain raiser.
Lukhan Tui – worth watching this year in the curtain raisers
Although the ARU is doing the best it can domestically it can’t hope to emulate the international RBS Under-20 Six Nations tournament which is currently under way in Europe.
But Thompson confided that the BMW Australian Under 20s will be playing New Zealand in two Division One games in the Oceania Under 20 Championships at Bond University in May.
Players will be chosen on April 4th for the camp and matches at Bond, and around May 10th after the two matches against the Kiwis, a final squad of 28 will be selected for the World Rugby Under 20 Championships in England in June.
Postscript: the Super Rugby U20 matches will not be televised this year but home Super Rugby organisations could arrange for streaming them.
2016 Super U20s Championship Draw:
Round One – Saturday 27 February – Western Force U20s v Melbourne Rebels, nib Stadium, Perth, 4:20pm
Saturday 27 February – Gen Blue U20s v Queensland U20s, Allianz Stadium, Sydney, 5.15pm
Round Two – Friday 4 March – Brumbies Colts (U20s) v Gen Blue U20s, GIO Stadium, Canberra 5.10pm
Saturday 5 March – Queensland U20s v Western Force U20s, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane 5.10pm
Round Three – Friday 11 March – Western Force U20s v Brumbies Colts (U20s), nib Stadium, Perth, 4.35pm
Saturday 12 March – Melbourne Rebels U20s v Queensland U20s, AAMI Park, Melbourne, TBC
Round Four – Saturday 19 March – Gen Blue U20s v Melbourne Rebels U20s, Sydney University, 1.25pm *
Saturday 19 March – Queensland U20s v Brumbies Colts, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, 5.10pm
Round Five – Saturday 26 March – Melbourne Rebels U20s v Brumbies Colts (U20s), AAMI Park, Melbourne, TBC
Saturday 26 March – Western Force U20s v Gen Blue U20s, UWA Sports Park, Perth 4.30pm *
* Not Asteron Life Super Rugby curtain-raisers
