Under-20 Competitions including Oceania & World U20s

[Dctarget]

Edwin Langi, Nick Hill, Eli Langi, Toby Brial, Tom Robinson, and Cooper Waters are all 2006 born and still eligible next year and Nick Conway is 07 so he has 2 more years of under 20s. Frankie Goldsbrough (injured this year but played last year) is also 06 with another year left.

All from: https://all.rugby/club/australia-u20/squad

Fuck yeah, up the joeys.

Always happy to see NH go poorly too. Bit nervous that the Bokke have some incredible backs coming through with size & pace. Probably find out they have a scottish granny soon enough.

 

[Adam84]

Cooper Watters looks good for an outside back, big frame and talented, reminds me a bit of Mark Nawaqanitawase when he played U20s

 

[Braveheart81]

Pools should be more sensible though. I’m not sure how we ended up in a pool of eng, sa and Scotland. Having SA first was rough.

They're based off the last tournament's results aren't they? Our pool was 1, 5, 8, 12 from the 2024 competition.

The 12 team format isn't ideal but I don't think the expansion to 16 teams really changes the outcome except for making teams like us believe we're still a chance deeper into the tournament. If you don't win your pool in the 16 team format you are set to enter a quarter final as a pretty solid underdog.

 

[Major Tom]

They're based off the last tournament's results aren't they? Our pool was 1, 5, 8, 12 from the 2024 competition.

The 12 team format isn't ideal but I don't think the expansion to 16 teams really changes the outcome except for making teams like us believe we're still a chance deeper into the tournament. If you don't win your pool in the 16 team format you are set to enter a quarter final as a pretty solid underdog.

Yeah, I don't think that it will magically fix our performance. But if anything, this tournament showed we actually got better as the tournament went deeper. A quarter final is a quarter final, and I like that if you come 2nd in your pool, you know you're up against it.

 

[Italophile]

Curious how poor Ireland were.

 

[Major Tom]

Curious how poor Ireland were.

Struggled having to actually play all their pool games this year.

 

[KOB1987]

They also struggle with having to play with actual Irish players

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Curious how poor Ireland were.

Ireland are only slightly better than Wales who are then better than Scotland. They got 2nd in 2016 & 2023 but other than that they have been 7th-11th almost every other year.

They are a recruitment nation even though they would like everyone to think they're a bastion of how to develop a system it's not in the sense of what we are trying to achieve.