SR U20s 2025
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@Tim Is he still eligible? I can't immediately find the regulations concerning age grade eligibility, but I always thought they used birth years. So everyone born the 1st of January 2025 and after can play in U20 competitions this year, everyone before can't be selected anymore. I could be wrong, though, I'll try finding out.
Cook is an interesting one. To me, he does look more like a blindside than a lock. He's got deceptive pace and I've seen him be quite comfortable attacking from the wing for the Blues U20s. I would like to see him be a bit more physical, but that can easily still come through. I thought the same of Cam Christie and he really stepped up in that regard in 2024.
I can't really comment on his height as I don't know.
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@Mauss said in SR U20s 2025:
So while the lineout is still a strength of players like Tengblad (and Eti to a lesser degree), other facets of the Kiwi lock’s core roles, such as maul defence and carrying in the tight, are not quite at the level required (yet). Tengblad’s slighter and lanky frame makes him susceptible to turnovers in the tight carry, while Eti’s decision-making in the maul defence – trying to drive through the centre of the Blues maul 5 metres from the try line in an uncoordinated manner – can be questionable
Fascinating analysis and a top notch write up. Tengblad is a such a top talent. Really looking forward to the Landers future with him involved.
This is an interesting observation, considering the players who make up the options for the Landers and Otago. He will likely form a long-term partnership with Holland. Who like him has all the skills. But, he is someone who at this point in his career can do both the tight stuff and dominate tackles. If Tengblad can follow the Holland development instead of the Pari Pari Parkinson route, he will be awesome. Seeing a picture of Tengblad on the Landers Instagram it does look like he is filling out a fair bit compared to some of those earlier clips. Will be funny when Holland is the shorter power lock for the Highlanders at 2.04m.
In the Landers U20s it is likely he will be playing Holland V2, Qunitin on the blindside. Replicating the tight six/lock the Landers like to run with the likes of Haig/Howden and even the shorter Renton. Allowing the six to take some of the pressure off him in the tight and allowing him to roam.
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The Chiefs U20s should have a good set of locks this year. Vakasiuola, Eti and Tama Hodgson. The latter is sort of the forgotten man as he did his ACL in the Sanix Tournament so missed playing as a Y13. Hodgson made the 2022 Barbarians U18s as a Y12 and was Eti's locking partner for the Waikato U19s last year. Not quite as tall as the others but mobile and can play 6 too.
Based on photos I think Jayden Sa is still eligible too, but more a 6.
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@SouthernMann The key for someone like Tengblad will probably be to just stay injury-free, which is of course easier said than done being 2m06. But if he can do that, I do think he can go far. He has a good combination of the physical and the cerebral, with a big engine and a very solid lineout brain.
Speaking of the Highlanders' future, the main thing that I think the future Landers pack is still missing is a primary carrying option. Both Broughton and Renton could be that guy but if we’re speaking ideal scenarios, a gamebreaker at Super Rugby level would add a lot. It's a real shame (for Highlanders fans) that someone like Lio-Willie ended up at the Crusaders. But either way, the forwards are shaping up well.
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@Bovidae said in SR U20s 2025:
The Chiefs U20s should have a good set of locks this year. Vakasiuola, Eti and Tama Hodgson. The latter is sort of the forgotten man as he did his ACL in the Sanix Tournament so missed playing as a Y13. Hodgson made the 2022 Barbarians U18s as a Y12 and was Eti's locking partner for the Waikato U19s last year. Not quite as tall as the others but mobile and can play 6 too.
Based on photos I think Jayden Sa is still eligible too, but more a 6.
Hodgson had indeed slipped my mind. He’ll have a lot of competition in that Chiefs U20 squad for minutes but hopefully he can have a good tournament in Taupo and stake his claim.
I really like Jayden Sa but I’ve somehow convinced myself that he was an ’04 birth. But now I can’t find any information on his age, so I could be wrong. Sa would actually be a great option next to someone like Tengblad as he provides lots of carrying and grunt to the pack.
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@Mauss said in SR U20s 2025:
@SouthernMann The key for someone like Tengblad will probably be to just stay injury-free, which is of course easier said than done being 2m06. But if he can do that, I do think he can go far. He has a good combination of the physical and the cerebral, with a big engine and a very solid lineout brain.
Speaking of the Highlanders' future, the main thing that I think the future Landers pack is still missing is a primary carrying option. Both Broughton and Renton could be that guy but if we’re speaking ideal scenarios, a gamebreaker at Super Rugby level would add a lot. It's a real shame (for Highlanders fans) that someone like Lio-Willie ended up at the Crusaders. But either way, the forwards are shaping up well.
Reuben Palmer could be that man.
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@Mauss said in SR U20s 2025:
It's a real shame (for Highlanders fans) that someone like Lio-Willie ended up at the Crusaders.If Tony Brown sorted out the toxic environment and the “old boys” club not being very welcoming to the younger players he still probably would be.
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@cgrant said in SR U20s 2025:
Reuben Palmer could be that man.
It’s an interesting thought but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tighthead lock be the primary, high-volume carrying option in Super Rugby. Tuipulotu last season for the Blues probably comes closest to that kind of thinking but even then he was still some way behind A. Ioane and Sotutu as ball carriers. It’s something that’s, as far as I know, pretty much limited to the Top 14 (Skelton, Meafou, P. Tuilagi, van der Mescht, ...).
Either way, it won’t be easy for the Highlanders to secure a big ball-carrier. With Akira Ioane and, most likely, Sotutu leaving Super Rugby, high-volume carriers will be in demand in the next few seasons.
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@Mauss said in SR U20s 2025:
@cgrant said in SR U20s 2025:
Reuben Palmer could be that man.
It’s an interesting thought but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tighthead lock be the primary, high-volume carrying option in Super Rugby. Tuipulotu last season for the Blues probably comes closest to that kind of thinking but even then he was still some way behind A. Ioane and Sotutu as ball carriers. It’s something that’s, as far as I know, pretty much limited to the Top 14 (Skelton, Meafou, P. Tuilagi, van der Mescht, ...).
Either way, it won’t be easy for the Highlanders to secure a big ball-carrier. With Akira Ioane and, most likely, Sotutu leaving Super Rugby, high-volume carriers will be in demand in the next few seasons.
We should get an idea around Palmer come the NPC, especially if Holland is with the All Blacks. Interestingly if he is picked, and Holland is around it Will likely mean all three of the locks Holland, Tengblad and Palmer will be out of the same club, Dunedin.
With the other two, Tengblad and Holland likely to be seen as the premier locks I dont see a situation where Palmer will be starting and given an opportunity to be a primary ball carrier.
Otago and the Highlanders problem is we have been producing quite a few quality 6/lock hybrids. Oli Haig, Will Stodart and coming through too is the second Dutchman Quintin Holland. All primarily blindsides or eights who can play lock. Strong young men. Not primary ball carriers.
Probably due to the demographic down there we lack some of the guys who end up becoming those dominant eights. Semisi Tupou was that player at high school level. Just hasn't come on and is viewed as being a touch small.
Former Southland boys Justin Shaw is likely to be the U20s no8, and probably still needs some time in the gym. Konrad Toleafoa was the dominant eight in club rugby in Dunedin, however has been stuck behind Lio-Willie and Stodart for provincial opportunities.
Out of the group of named acadamey players on the website. None would be thought of as primary ball carriers. The young Rutledge is a small seven. Couple of the hookers have grunt.
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@SouthernMann said in SR U20s 2025:
Former Southland boys Justin Shaw is likely to be the U20s no8, and probably still needs some time in the gym. Konrad Toleafoa was the dominant eight in club rugby in Dunedin, however has been stuck behind Lio-Willie and Stodart for provincial opportunities.
Out of the group of named acadamey players on the website. None would be thought of as primary ball carriers. The young Rutledge is a small seven. Couple of the hookers have grunt.
I watched a bit of Gregor Rutledge for the Barbarian U18s where he played at blindside. Industrious but, like you say, does not appear to be a big body. Shaun Kempton, one of the hookers, is a really smooth player (he should appear in my U20 front row preview). Good hands and a great understanding of space. But not really someone for the constant carries up the middle.
Max Ratcliffe might be the closest to that primary ball carrier within the Highlanders' high performance programme, he's very solid in contact. But perhaps not quite at the level of those more 'elite' up-and-coming carriers, like Malachi Wrampling, Mosese Bason, and Fletcher Anderson (and perhaps Patrick Tuifua, if he sticks around).
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With the recent injury troubles at the Crusader hooker department, concerns have been expressed about the lack of depth in the position at the franchise. As it happens, three of the likely 2025 NZ U20 hookers have strong connections to the Crusader academy, with Manumaea Letiu and Eli Oudenryn being in the wider training squad while Shaun Kempton came through the same system before switching to the Highlanders. So I thought it was a good time to take a closer look at the 2025 crop of NZ U20 hookers and see how they could provide impact in the near future.
Spotlight: Ball-playing hookers
Hookers, much like midfielders amongst the backs, are often all-round players, equally proficient at manipulating the nuanced mechanisms of the maul as they are at rampaging down the tramlines like a full-blown winger. This all-round nature of the hooker, however, also has its potential downsides, with certain hookers fitting the expression, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This type of hooker typically does his core roles well but often struggles to consistently impact the contest, lacking a concrete edge which makes their game stand out.One can argue, for example, that someone like Kianu Kereru-Symes was more adept at his core roles than his predecessor of the year before, Asafo Aumua. Aumua could struggle with his throwing and at times neglected some of the tasks expected of a front-rower, such as moving bodies at ruck time, in favour of carrying. But there is little doubt in anyone’s mind, I presume, about who impacted the game more, with Aumua scoring a freakish hat-trick in the 2017 U20 World Championship final and being a menace across the park throughout the entire tournament.
The 2025 class of NZ U20 hookers aren’t perfectly polished. All of them have their own flaws and work on’s, which is only to be expected of such young players. But what is positive to see is that they all clearly have an edge to their game, something that makes them stand out and which allows them to consistently impact the game. To further highlight this, I want to take a brief look at a game from 2023, the NZ Schools game against the NZ U18 Barbarians. All four hookers in this match – Manumaea Letiu and Shaun Kempton (NZ Schools), and Eli Oudenryn and Kaleb Tapara (NZ U18 Baabaas) – will come into consideration for selection for this year’s U20s team, making it an interesting game to focus on.
Letiu, who started this game as the starting 2 for NZ Schools, has already earned selection for the NZ U20s in 2024, and will be a strong favourite to claim a position in the 23 of this year’s selection. Letiu, like many before him, can sometimes struggle with hitting his target during the lineout, although it is by no means a worrying facet of his game at the moment. Where Letiu excels is his decision-making on attack. The Canterbury hooker has excellent offensive instincts, exemplified by his ability to put players into space and aided by his own dynamic body positioning when carrying, allowing him to get into the exact positions he wants to.
The Canterbury hooker’s playmaking abilities are perhaps already relatively well-known, after producing a bit of magic on the side-lines in the NZ Schools’ game against Australia U18 in 2023 and which appeared in the highlight reels:
Letiu with the flashy try assist against Australia U18 in 2023
But this is not some rare occasion for Letiu, his playmaking ability rather a consistent contribution to the collective team efforts. Early in the game against the NZ Barbarian U18s, for example, Letiu receives the ball unexpectedly after the Barbarian lineout goes astray.
Letiu setting up another try
In quick succession, he (1) runs into the space, (2) uses Tengblad as a decoy to beat a defender, and, when noticing Pledger running off his shoulder, (3) immediately passes to the latter for the try.
What Letiu is really good at, in other words, is keeping the game very simple: keep the ball in two hands, keep your options continuously open, and play into space.
Letiu's one step with the ball before passing fixes the defender
This passage of play is innocuous enough, but Letiu does everything right to fix his defender and make sure the line-break proceeds as smoothly as it can. Letiu’s combination of dynamic carrying and passing abilities make him a difficult player to contain from a defence’s perspective, as he has multiple ways to break the line.
His back-up in this game, Kempton, possesses a lot of similar strengths. Like Letiu before him, Kempton slotted in seamlessly as a distributing ball-player, both as part of a structured attacking shape as in more fluid counter-attacking situations.
Kempton excels as a distributor
Kempton is a quite lanky and slender hooker but what he lacks in size he makes up in speed and work-rate.
Kempton catches Cooper Roberts, makes the tackle and immediately gets back up to contest, leading to a turnover
Through his distributional and defensive ability, Kempton acts more like extra loose forward on the pitch than a typical front-rower, a role which is well-suited for providing impact of the bench.
While the NZ Schools hookers impacted the game through their passing and attacking vision, their Barbarian opponents – Eli Oudenryn and Kaleb Tapara – lived up to their team’s name and expressed themselves through barnstorming carrying and breakdown brutality. Oudenryn was a consistent menace at the breakdown in this game, constantly disrupting the NZ Schools’ attacking breakdown and successfully pilfering the ball on two occasions.
Oudenryn getting over the ball
Tapara, the youngest of the bunch (U19 in 2025), continued Oudenryn’s breakdown dominance while adding some real angry running to the game. Tapara provided a nice contrast to Letiu’s and Kempton’s subtlety on attack, by simply grabbing the ball and smashing into a bloke as hard as possible.
Kaleb the Barbarian
It’s a reliable facet of Tapara’s game to just run it straight, with another nice example to be found in the Chiefs U18 game against the Blues U18. As the play is clearly designed for this kind of run from the hooker, it’s clearly a known strength to his game.
The 2025 class of NZ U20 hookers is an intriguing mix of subtle skills and brute force, which could be cultivated into a potent weapon by a coaching group able to figure out a game plan to maximize those different skillsets. None of these young players are the finished product: Letiu and Kempton have a habit of going for the 50/50-play; Oudenryn needs to find ways to be more involved on the attack; and Tapara can improve his throwing. But they all have a genuine edge to their game which allows them to consistently impact the contest. And, especially in age grade rugby, this kind of edge is often a bigger contributor to winning rugby than sheer all-round solidity, as the game is a bit more loose, unstructured and forgiving to the occasional risky play.
Further points of discussion
The scrum, as always, will be an important part of the team’s overall performance. Sika Pole (Auckland) and Logan Wallace (Manawatu) will be the likely frontrunners for the starting jerseys, having been part of the 2024 NZ U20 squad. Wallace will have to improve his scrummaging, though, as he was penalized (correctly, in my opinion) multiple times for collapsing the scrum against the French U20s in their pool game. Wallace has a number of things going for him: he’s a big body with a solid engine and quick feet, which isn’t a very common profile. But if he can’t keep up the scrum then he might face some real competition for the spot. Someone like Apai Ma’u Hinkes (Counties Manukau), the Chiefs U20 prop, will stake his claim. Other tightheads, like Sione Mafi ( Ta$man) and Tamiano Ahloo (U19, Auckland) will come into consideration as well.Raharuhi Palmer (Waikato) and Kane Paranihi ( Ta$man) are hard-working props who were excellent for the Māori U18s in 2024 which could propel them into contention for spots. Others, like Robson Faleafa (Auckland), Tonga Helu (Canterbury) and Samiuela Moimoi ( Ta$man) have earned representative honours in recent years so will have a shot to impress once again during the Super Rugby U20s tournament.
While it’s hard to predict how a scrum’s going to go, the coaches will have their work cut out for them finding the right combinations. There’s talented props in the group but, as far as I can tell, few scrumming specialists. The set-piece might be a bit of a challenge for this group which, to be fair to them, is not that uncommon for the NZ U20s.
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I assume that Kaleb Tapara had some injuries last year as he wasn't involved in the U19s. It would be good to see him in the Chiefs U20s this year. One hooker that will be there is Tom McCarthy. He was the backup hooker for the Chiefs U20s in 2024 and the Waikato U19 captain. Mobile but his throwing needs improvement - a common problem with age-group hookers.
If Xavier Leota (Kelston BHS, Blues) has left school I think he is a strong chance to make the NZ U20s.
