2012 IRB Junior World Championship

[AngrySeahorse]

Yep NZ look shit as well.

New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have all been horrible this tournament and I know exactly why:

Six Nations u20s. Come on SANZAR do something about it, we need a SH u20s tournament.

What about expanding this & including the Islander nations too?

 

[Cardiffblue]

How come our reward for beating NZ is to play them again?

 

[Tiger]

I agree it's a disappointing performance.

To be fair though it's a bit hard to come up with a reliable ranking from the pool games alone.

If, for example, you ranked the teams after the pool stage based on points at the 2011 RWC you'd have this:

1. New Zealand
2. England
3. South Africa
4. Ireland
5. Australia
6. Wales
7. Argentina
8. France

France nearly won the bloody thing.

 

[kiap]

What about expanding this & including the Islander nations too?

Add Japan to get 8 teams. Have 2 pools of 4, then Semis and a Final.

 

[Torn Hammy]

Watch out for South Africa. England played very well, the ability of every team member to draw, pass and set up was fantastic and a sign of many a skill session. But their attacking raids were denied every time by some excellent SA defence. Irelamd only got through them for tries after kick charge downs and England and Italy couldn't cross the line. They will be hard to beat.

 

[PaarlBok]

What a performance from the Bokkies. Knew from the start if we can sort out our 1st phase and give that backs pill they will do the rest. Was worried with two midfielders on the wing but hell they were excellent. Pollard still makes a few schoolboy errors, not finding touch but he sure show some slick hands and look pretty good on this level for a 18 year old schoolboy. Adendorf may look 30 but he played a good innings. Ginga also decided to step up the plate and his experience a big factor. We played the Argies a few times before the tournament and know what to do to beat them. Another interesting stats is that 11 of the Bokkies that played last night played against the same opposition two years ago as SA Schools players. Excellent win and happy to see the talent final give justice to their play.

 

[twenty seven]

God help us if Nucifora ever gets the senior team job.

He is our High Performance God with a finger in every pie!

 

[twenty seven]

Thoughts anyone?

Nothing against the lads but I believe the choices made by Nuci and Eddy got it wrong because they picked too many players who were
too inexperienced and players who had not played above Colts. Also there were players who were injured for many months and had no match fitness prior to the tournament. They had not been exposed to the diversities of the game (particularly wet weather). Many came from school where the seasons are super short with barely a year in club rugby in colts. The Argentinians and French played better BASIC rugby with a bettr understanding of the dynamics of the game.

 

[PaarlBok]

Semi fixtures and venues:
9th Place Semi Final
17 Jun, 12:30Scotland-Italy University of Western Cape Stadium, Cape Town
17 Jun, 14:45Fiji-Samoa University of Western Cape Stadium, Cape Town
5th Place Semi Final
17 Jun, 14:45France-Australia Newlands Stadium, Cape Town
17 Jun, 17:00Ireland-England University of Western Cape Stadium, Cape Town
Semi Finals
17 Jun, 17:00Wales-New Zealand Newlands Stadium, Cape Town
17 Jun, 19:15Argentina-South Africa Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

 

[PaarlBok]

Nothing against the lads but I believe the choices made by Nuci and Eddy got it wrong because they picked too many players who were
too inexperienced and players who had not played above Colts. Also there were players who were injured for many months and had no match fitness prior to the tournament. They had not been exposed to the diversities off the game (particularly wet weather). Many came from school where the seasons are super short with barely a year in club rugby in colts. The Argentinians and French played better BASIC rugby with a bettr understanding of the dynamics of the game.

Sa have our U19 CC a year earlier and a u20 Varsity Cup to get their sqaud and talent available. Still far from perfect but I qouted before that the 6 nations countries have a huge advantage playing a competition just before the WC. This is the tournament we need in SANZAR. You only need to look at SA matches to realise that we probably have the best available players but the biggest challenge is to combine them in the best possible unit to perform to their talent. In the past NZ raw talent was good enough , this isnt good enough anymore.

 

[Brumby Jack]

Fox Sports 2 will be showing the following games:

Australia v. France for 5th at 11:45pm on Sunday
Wales v. New Zealand at 1am on Monday
Argentina v. South Africa at 3am on Monday

 

[Manuel]

8. Chateau looked like Zinzan, as the commentators said, and he is likely a future test player - and there's even another star no.8 who is younger, teenager Galland of Stade Francais, yet to come.

You probably mean Gillian Galan, from Toulouse. He's from 1991, so played last year's JWC. He's played 18 games for the Toulouse pro team this season. He's very good, but needs some fitness before going international.

 

[PaarlBok]

How come our reward for beating NZ is to play them again?

Thats your reward for beating them. 1st plays 4th.

 

[Iluvmyfooty]

If the franchises don't want an U20 side to play in a Super 15 U20's comp then w

 

[Iluvmyfooty]

If the franchises don't want an U20 side to play in a Super 15 U20's comp then we should make a national competition similar to the old APC where the players have some ties with the franchises. This would at least bring them somewhere near what is happening overseas. I bet all those sides in the semis have the majority of their players involved full time with senior clubs and not just in colts but full grade players.

 

[Forcefield]

WA, Victoria and maybe the ACT could really use a franchise based U20 competition. If it was semi-professional it might also help the player drain to League.

 

[FANATIC]

The future of Argentine Rugby looks good if this team is anything to go by.
Did anyone watch them scrummage against Australia?
They just smashed us to pieces, pushed through us like they were on rollerskates. It was incredible to watch. ARG v RSA on the weekend should be worth a look.
I'd put my money on a Wales v ARG final.

 

[I like to watch]

If the franchises don't want an U20 side to play in a Super 15 U20's comp then we should make a national competition similar to the old APC where the players have some ties with the franchises. This would at least bring them somewhere near what is happening overseas. I bet all those sides in the semis have the majority of their players involved full time with senior clubs and not just in colts but full grade players.

I agree that the franchises should run a squad of 20's players.
Not sure I understand your point with the bolded bit,The 20's guys should have exposure to grade in what sort of format?

 

[Informer]

Looks like a Boks V Blacks final to me, with the Boks warm favourites. Their back row was outstanding against the Poms. Their number 7 has it all, size, speed and aggression, player of the tournament for mine with the number 6 not far behind. The halves were also very impressive.

The Wobs will have to take a hard look at every aspect of their performance as they have struggled all over the park. The selections even before leaving Australia were questionable and have got worse as the tournament progresses. Playing boys out of position and in different positions inevitably has lead to poor cohesion and teamwork. The fowards have tried hard to litte effect, with lines outs poor (Roach really should be able to throw straigth by now), scrums patchy and even Gill has struggled to get them going forward (he was overshadowed by the Argie no 7).

The backs have been a major dissapointment, particulary out wide. Hard to believe with all the money spent on the National development program that we have no world class outside backs. Midfield defence in the game against the Frogs was terrible ( Apo still goes missing in defence) while the wingers lacked serious pace.

Hard to see many of these boys going on to higher honours. I liked Frisby who has shown composure but it is hard to pick any other stand outs. Latu looks promising (why he was not in the run on squad against the frogs is beyond me). The buck stops with the selectors and coaches who once again have got it badly wrong. It does seem like the lack of a serious competiton where boys of this age group can compete and hone their skills is a major factor. All the training in the junior development squads is no substitute for hard match experience. Going by the standard in the Sydney colts and grade competition we have a long way to go if we want to give this tournament a shake any time soon. Nirvana would be a junior squad attached to each super 15 franchise who play thoughout the season similar to the ARL under 20 comp but it is not going to happen.

 

[Antony]

The backs have been a major dissapointment, particulary out wide. Hard to believe with all the money spent on the National development program that we have no world class outside backs.

Apologies for the ignorance I'm about to showcase, but I haven't had the chance to follow the tournament.

A few people have made this point about slow wingers - so I was just wondering what happened to this Chris F'Sautia kid we hear so much about? He hasn't looked too slow in the snippets of him I've seen.