2012 IRB Junior World Championship

[Shiggins]

The fact that new Zealand lost to wales in similar conditions prove that playing rugby in those conditions make for
A 50 50 result. The nh teams are obviously used to playing it those conditions. However problem is I don't see them making excuses when they loose in the dry weather. Lol.


Http://www.youtube.com/shiggins316

 

[TOCC]

i personally think it is partly due to our representative selection process.

These days representative sides are too often picked full of players who make the big hits and the big runs, rarely do we see the workhorses picked, especially in the pack.
Playing in the wet and in the rain, isn't the place for the show ponies who stand out on a dry pitch. Its the type of match where the workaholics get stuck in, and put in 80mins of 110% effort.

I think its a inherit problem with identifying talent within Australia that lets us down, we far too often underestimate the contribution players like Jake Shatz make to a winning team(i.e. players who are technically superior but may not be as physically gifted as the likes of TPN or Palu)

 

[PaarlBok]

Bokkies have everything to play for tomorrow against England. Pollard had a reasonable debut and only look like a schoolboy with his first kick. From then on he gathered confidense and look like a better option compare to Jantjies (jnr) for this important match tomorrow. We need to score four tries and beat England to top our group and make sure we qualify for the semis. Wont be easy but at least all the weird results gave as some hope to stay in touch.

They wanted to move the matches before the last round of matches but decided against it. Craven Stadium a mud bath but then thats the way our laaities play in winter time. Looking for ward to tomorrow, its very cold, snow on the mountains but the sun is out since yesterday. Weak cold front on its way but dont think it will bring much rain.

 

[PaarlBok]

SA Bokkie team to play the Poms, hope it aint third time lucky for them.
SARugby

Junior Springboks coach Dawie Theron made five changes to his starting team for their crucial pool B clash against England in the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday. With Ireland also still in the hunt, the result of this clash could determine the group winner and subsequent semi-finalist of this pool in the IRB Junior World Championship 2012.

Theron recalled fullback Dillyn Leyds and wings Paul Jordaan and Pat Howard to his backline and Shaun Adendorff and Fabian Booysen to his loose trio, with his midfield, halfbacks and tight five from the convincing victory over Italy remaining intact.

Wiaan Liebenberg will again lead the side from the side of the scrum.

Theron expressed his excitement for this crucial clash.

“We have all of our current squad fit and ready to play, so I could pick a team I believe can take us past England and into the final four of the competition. We’ve recovered well from the Italy match, but realise that England will be a different opponent, both physically and mentally.”

With both teams needing a bonus point and a win to edge out Ireland, Theron is expecting an all action affair at the fast surface of the Cape Town Stadium.

“We need to score tries and try and get the bonus point and England will have to do the same, so one expects a match with two positives sides playing attacking rugby. This mean that we will have to attack well, but even defend better, as England have shown that they are a team that can score tries.”

Liebenberg also expected no favours from their opponents.
“They can spoil our party, but this will be a very determined and motivated Junior Bok team that will take the field. We have everything to lose, so defeat is not an option for us. We gained good momentum from the win against Italy and now need to use that to get past England.”

Team vs England (Tuesday 12 June 2012, kick-off 18h45):

15. Dillyn Leyds (Western Province)
14. Paul Jordaan (KZN)
13. William Small-Smith (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
12. Jan Serfontein (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
11. Pat Howard (DHL Western Province)
10. Handrè Pollard (DHL Western Province)
9. Vian van der Watt (MTN Golden Lions)
8. Fabian Booysen (MTN Golden Lions)
7. Wiaan Liebenberg (Vodacom Blue Bulls, captain)
6. Shaun Adendorff (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
5. Ruan Botha (MTN Golden Lions)
4. Paul Willemse (MTN Golden Lions)
3. Oliver Kebble (DHL Western Province)
2. Jason Thomas (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
1. Steven Kitshoff (DHL Western Province)

Reserves:
16. Mark Pretorius (MTN Golden Lions)
17. Allan Dell (KZN)
18. Pieter Steph du Toit (KZN)
19. Braam Steyn (KZN)
20. Abrie Griesel (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
21. Tony Jantjies (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
22. Tshotsho Mbovane (DHL Western Province)
23. Maks van Dyk (KZN)

 

[PaarlBok]

Glad to see Pollard gets another chance to boost his confidense. Good looking backline with two midfielders on the wings and everything to play for.

 

[qwerty51]

England should knock you guys out unfortunately, NZ will pick up the 4th seed.

 

[PaarlBok]

England should knock you guys out unfortunately, NZ will pick up the 4th seed.

I wont be surprise but you never know. The Bokkies looks undercook , in fact all the 3 Nations teams look undercook against the 6 Nations teams. They just finished their 6 nations and obvious combos play a huge role nowadays specially in shitty weather.

 

[qwerty51]

You don't just have to win, you have to beat them by more than 7 or score 4 tries. Tough ask

Agree on undercooked Paarl, no idea why we can't organise an u20s Rugby Championship (even though it would be no help to us here).

 

[PaarlBok]

You don't just have to win, you have to beat them by more than 7 or score 4 tries. Tough ask

Agree on undercooked Paarl, no idea why we can't organise an u20s Rugby Championship (even though it would be no help to us here).

Sanzar should just move the tournament later and we'll play our U20 tournament to prepare. Sadly we helped the Argies before the tournament started and that help them no ends against you lot. Stellenbosch pretty much home for them. I still have hopes tho, did not had any on friday.

 

[Braveheart81]

So is Australia's only hope of making the semi finals to beat France with a bonus point and hope that neither South Africa or New Zealand achieve a bonus point win and we beat them both on for and against?

 

[qwerty51]

So is Australia's only hope of making the semi finals to beat France with a bonus point and hope that neither South Africa or New Zealand achieve a bonus point win and we beat them both on for and against?

More likely scenario is Scotland beating Argentina by more than 7 and Argentina only score 3 tries or less

We're out, neither will happen.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Goodness me. That wet day with the Junior Darkness and the Young Men in Gold going down has turned this tournament on its arse especially from our perspective.

Just looked at the draw and yes we are cactus.

It could be a bit like the old days in the Bensen and Hedges World Series when for the Aussies to make the finals, the Windies had to be beaten by the Poms by 100 runs or more on Saturday at the WACA, and int he Sunday WACA double header, we had to beat the Windies without losing more than 2 wickets plus score over 250 runs or some such like improbable scenario. Somehow we always managed that. Good place the WACA!

I mean most pundits would not have bet on the Junior Darkness going down to the Boyo's from the Mines, let alone our fine athletes being put to the sword by the Argies. Funny old game footy isn't it.

Stranger things like the various win/loss/bonus point scenarios could happen to allow us to progress as 4th seed, but this would be a highly unlikely scenario?

Anyone for a conspiracy theory that the Little Darknesses threw their game to keep us out of the Tournament Semis?

Notwithstanding our poor ability in the mud, the performances in the Scots game from some of the lads were sublime and a good indicator of things to come. Well done to them.

 

[Nusadan]

So is Australia's only hope of making the semi finals to beat France with a bonus point and hope that neither South Africa or New Zealand achieve a bonus point win and we beat them both on for and against?

I wouldn't put it past France to beat Australia, you know what they're like if you go along with their senior counterparts...brilliant one day, shocking next.

 

[The Red Baron]

Slightly off topic here, but when Hugh bangs on about the darkness, I can't help but think of these guys:

 

[PaarlBok]

Clear skies this morning.

The current log look like this:
Overall LogPool A
Pos Team P W D L PF PA PD TF TA BPts Pts
1 Wales 2 2 0 0 53 24 29 6 2 1 9
2 New Zealand 2 1 0 1 69 9 60 10 0 2 6
3 Fiji 2 1 0 1 33 47 -14 5 6 0 4
4 Samoa 2 0 0 2 3 78 -75 0 13 0 0

Fixtures:
Wales vs Samoa, NZ vs Fiji
Pool B
Pos Team P W D L PF PA PD TF TA BPts Pts
1 England 2 2 0 0 84 20 64 11 3 1 9
2 South Africa 2 1 0 1 71 26 45 9 2 2 6
3 Ireland 2 1 0 1 38 39 -1 4 3 1 5
4 Italy 2 0 0 2 8 116 -108 1 17 0 0
Fixtures
12 Jun, 14:45 Ireland - Italy Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
12 Jun, 18:45 South Africa - England Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

Pool C
Pos Team P W D L PF PA PD TF TA BPts Pts
1 Argentina 2 2 0 0 33 18 15 4 0 0 8
2 France 2 1 0 1 45 47 -2 4 5 2 6
3 Australia 2 1 0 1 70 27 43 11 4 1 5
4 Scotland 2 0 0 2 41 97 -56 5 15 1 1

Fixtures:
Argentina vs Skotte, France vs Australia.

Ranking Within Pools:

At the conclusion of the Pool phase, the Teams in a Pool are ranked one through four based on their cumulative Match points, and identified respectively as winner, runner up, third and fourth.

If, at the completion of the Pool phase, two or more Teams are level on Match points, then the following criteria shall be used in the following order until one of the Teams can be determined as the higher ranked:

(i) the winner of the Match in which the two tied Teams have played each other shall be the higher ranked;

(ii) the Team which has the best difference between points scored for and points scored against in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;

(iii) the Team which has the best difference between tries scored for and tries scored against in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;

(iv) the Team which has scored most points in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked;

(v) the Team which has scored most tries in all its Pool Matches shall be the higher ranked; and

(vi) if none of the above produce a result, then it will be resolved with a toss of a coin.

Seeding for Round 4
At the end of the Pool phase, the Teams will be seeded based on the position in which they finished in their respective Pools.

1st Seed Pool winner with most competition points
2nd Seed Pool winner with 2nd most competition points
3rd Seed Pool winner with 3rd most competition points
4th Seed Pool second place with most competition points
5th Seed Pool second place with 2nd most competition points
6th Seed Pool second place with 3rd most competition points
7th Seed Pool third place with most competition points
8th Seed Pool third place with 2nd most competition points
9th Seed Pool third place with 3rd most competition points
10th Seed Pool fourth place with most competition points
11th Seed Pool fourth place with 2nd most competition points
12th Seed Pool fourth place with 3rd most competition points

If two or more Teams are level on Match points, then the same criteria as that used after the Pool rounds (Ranking within Pools) will be used (excluding criteria (i)) - see above (ii) to (vi)).
 
Based on the seedings, the allocation of fourth round Matches will be as follows:

For Rankings 9 - 12
10th Seed v 11th Seed
9th Seed v 12th Seed

For Rankings 5 - 8
6th Seed v 7th Seed
5th Seed v 8th Seed

Semi Finals
2nd Seed v 3rd Seed
1st Seed v 4th Seed

 

[Bruce Ross]

Has the Australian team for tonight's game been announced yet, or is that too much to expect nine hours out from a World Championship game?
.

 

[Brumbies Guy]

Has the Australian team for tonight's game been announced yet, or is that too much to expect nine hours out from a World Championship game?
.

It's been up for awhile:

1 Pettowa Paraka
2 Hugh Roach
3 Les Makin
4 Jed Holloway
5 Curtis Browning
6 Sean McMahon
7 Liam Gill (C)
8 Thomas Cusack
9 Nicholas Frisby
10 Kyle Godwin
11 Allan Faalavaau
12 Apo Latunipulu
13 Chris Sautia
14 James Dargaville
15 Lewis Holland
16 Silatolu Latu
17 Oli Hoskins
18 Sam Jeffries
19 Benn Melrose
20 Matt Lucas
21 Con Foley
22 UJ Seuteni
23 Allan Ala'alatoa

 

[Country Kid]

Rugby smorgasbord tonight....

IRB JWC matches - Australia playing for 5th spot? Ouch!

ACT V Wales

Side dish
Socceroos V Blue Samurai

 

[qwerty51]

That's gotta be one of the smallest lock combinations ever...

 

[kiap]

That's gotta be one of the smallest lock combinations ever.

With Browning at lock, the pack has four backrowers. Has Nuci gone with a selection for a high workrate, up-tempo gameplan or were there injury problems with the genuine locks?