2013 IRB Junior World Championship - France

[Stallion]

Stallion, you do realise it was a GPS coaching team.
Thompson played his Rugby at GPS starting in Colts in 1983 and Hedger coached the Colts to a Premiership in the early noughties.
Our results aren't good but we have had some good coaches (including these guys) who have been made to look average along with the players.
Maybe the problem isn't personnel but the system.
Another former GPS person John Ribot once told me that his experience as a sports administrator taught him that the best development program in the world is a quality competition.
Lets get our best players playing competitive Rugby against each other and the cream will rise to the top.

It doesn't matter where he came from, he's a mug! We're talking about doing the best to represent Australia on the world stage, and sadly he has missed the ball. Australia is no way the 7th or 8th best footy nation in Junior World Rugby, however behind the scenes, we definitely operate like it.

 

[Stallion]

Stallion, you do realise it was a GPS coaching team.
Thompson played his Rugby at GPS starting in Colts in 1983 and Hedger coached the Colts to a Premiership in the early noughties.
Our results aren't good but we have had some good coaches (including these guys) who have been made to look average along with the players.
Maybe the problem isn't personnel but the system.
Another former GPS person John Ribot once told me that his experience as a sports administrator taught him that the best development program in the world is a quality competition.
Lets get our best players playing competitive Rugby against each other and the cream will rise to the top.

Further to my last comment, I believe we already have a good club system in Brisbane and Sydney with Melbourne and WA beginning to make in roads, the problem in my opinion is that teams already seem pre-picked from the outset, with guys earmarked via the academies realistically the only ones who get a foot in the door.
How hard would it be in this day and age to organise video of all under 20 player eligible players to be looked over? You could ask clubs, who would have a greater intricate understanding of who is worthy to trial, confirm through footage, organise a game in one location to determine a states best of the best and then play the best players from each state against one another to see who gets the nod. We do it in schools, why can't we do it for 20's? When the player pool is more specific when Australia 20 worthy players would make themselves more apparent via playing Prem Colts or Premier Grade? Seriously, what do these guys do up in ARU head quarters?

 

[happyjack]

HJ, you are a Sunnybank boy aren't you? I watched a game of Colts last year and Tom Lucas smashed us in defence. I have always been a fan of his older brother since East Coast Aces days. Tom seems to be getting good reviews in Prems each week. Was he considered for the 20's. We play you guys in a week or two so I dare say I'll be able to judge for myself

Tom didn't expect to play Premier so he is off to Europe for 3 weeks (booked early in the year). He will feature in years to come, most likely initially in the 7s.
Dion Taumata and Jake McIntyre will both be back in the next 2 weeks so the Bank should be well covered.
It will be good to catch up with the players from the 20s and see what they think.
In 2007 which was the last year before the IRB 20s started we had an U19 National Tri-Series at the start of the year and a Trans-Tasman series in October (Qld won both!).
If we combine some of the suggestions you would have the following structure.
October of preceding year: Provincial U19 Tournament (possibly Trans Tasman)
November - February: Academy Programs
March - April: Premier Rugby
May: Camp & U20 Test v NZ (maybe 2 Tests)
June: IRB Tournament

 

[Zander]

Australia up 20-0 vs Ireland only 30 minutes in.

 

[an observer]

Australia won 28 - 17 over Ireland.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

England 23 Wales 15.

Soap Dodgers take the title.

Jack Lemmon (Eng) declared Player of the Year.

2014 tournament in New Zealand.

 

[Dai bando]

Wales did well for the first 40, 15/3 up, then it seemed a matter of fitness, welsh players blowing hard English still looked fresh No complaints fitness wins.

 

[an observer]

England 23 Wales 15.

Soap Dodgers take the title.

Jack Lemmon (Eng) declared Player of the Year.

2014 tournament in New Zealand.

HJ, i think Sam Davies was declared IRB player of the year?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

You might be right about Sam Davies being player of the Tourney.

I was only going off what I thought I heard in the post match banter from the Commentators.

 

[Zander]

Aus pack was super impressive but lacked anything in the backs. Weird to see from an Aus side.

 

[Iluvmyfooty]

Aus pack was super impressive but lacked anything in the backs. Weird to see from an Aus side.

Any report on the game? Just goes to show that with a bit of game time the result in the first and second pool games could have been much different and the position we would be playing for much better

 

[Iluvmyfooty]

All in all though and given that its only one place higher the performance of this team was a vast improvement on last year

 

[Honest John]

All in all though and given that its only one place higher the performance of this team was a vast improvement on last year

Agreed 100% - with some game time as a team prior to the tournament the 4 point losses to Ireland and NZ in the pool rounds could have had the team in a vastly better position - congrats to the side for finishing it off in style though.

 

[an observer]

http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsArticle/ArticleID/9620.aspx

 

[Iluvmyfooty]

Good to see Wessels start today. No co-incidence that the two wins were achieved with him as the starting half back

 

[wamberal]

The English team were definitely not boys.

 

[Dai bando]

The welsh took it to them in the first half and did very well, considering the munching England gave us in the junior 6nations, But they were just to powerful, like a boxer we just punched our selves out and had nothing left for the second half,
The good news for the welsh boys is that many of them are just 18 and have a few more years together, they just did to us what they did to NZ we were just out muscled.

 

[Forcefield]

Pools for next year will be interesting:

Pool 1
England
Argentina
Australia
JWT promotion

Pool 2
Wales
France
Ireland
Fiji

Pool 3
South Africa
New Zealand
Samoa
Scotland

Anyone know where it is going to be played?

 

[Craig Riddington]

The welsh took it to them in the first half and did very well, considering the munching England gave us in the junior 6nations, But they were just to powerful, like a boxer we just punched our selves out and had nothing left for the second half,
The good news for the welsh boys is that many of them are just 18 and have a few more years together, they just did to us what they did to NZ we were just out muscled.

Some talent in that Welsh team though Dai. I was particularly impressed with Davies, Jordan Williams, Jack Jones and your seven (Jenkins?). What a step Williams has!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Pools for next year will be interesting:

Anyone know where it is going to be played?

New Zealand (probably Auckland), according to the Commentators this morning.

EDIT: I got the player of the tourney wrong, so the next tournament could actually be in Outer Mongolia.