2017 New Zealand U20s
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@antipodean Good on them! Falcon usually makes them, too. Sometimes a player has a day that the boot isn't that good. Ask Barrett, Cruden and others.
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@Stargazer said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
Full time: New Zealand 69 - 3 Ireland
Weird to say, but I think the scoreline flatters Ireland quite a bit.
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11 tries to nil. Baby Blacks look very good against poor opposition.
South Africa did the same to Argentina.
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England will have to beat Australia by 62 points to top the differential.
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@antipodean said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
England will have to beat Australia by 62 points to top the differential.
OK good to know.
So we should play France as they should finish 4th with a win over Georgia.South Africa vs England in the other semi.
This is shaping up well for the Baby Blacks. As long as the weather stays fine I feel like we should be strong favourites to take out the title.
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@Stargazer said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
@profitius said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
The Italians were just lacking a bit of belief. Still its their best U20 side since they've been in the competition.
The baby blacks should be looking to run up a big score on Ireland, as Ireland are sending out the reserves.
Many injuries?
Yeah. Most of the top players missed the tournament so that team was the C team. The starting 10 was the 5th choice, 4th choice hooker, 3rd choice loosehead was playing tighthead, a backrow was playing second row and so on. New coaching team too since the 6 nations.
That Ireland side was physically way underdeveloped and their fitness levels are well off. Most of the other top team would have put them to the sword also.
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I only watched the first half so far.
Of interest:
- first time in tournament we have contested lineouts.
- first scrum was a shocker, then was much steadier. First start for Fidow in tournament.
- backs look class
Speaking of first starts. Very little rotation has occurred, and considering both Italy and Ireland put out their B teams v us that's kinda weird. Too spooked from last year missing out on top 4 on points difference when really the reason they missed out last year was the pack was soft as melted butter.
5 games in a fortnight this tournament. 4 day turnarounds. Surprising lack of rotation from a nation who should genuinely have the depth at this level. Even if we didn't last year have the depth to catch up on points diff after game 1 pantsing by Irish.
It seems the only real selection conundrum is at centre with Ennor v Tua. I would go Ennor, and my hunch is that is their first choice anyway but Tua knocked the door down when Ennor was ill. But Ennor looks pure class to me.
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With the risk of commenting after only watching half the game.
I thought Falcon looked really good today, he was mediocre in game 1.
In first half his goal kicking looked good, although I think he missed penalty in opening minutes while I wasn't paying attention.
Not sure if stargazer/Hawkes Bay trolling is going on, or he disintegrated later on.
I'm starting to get concerned at NZ goal kickers ability to slot anything that isn't a conversion from the 22. Every penalty gets out into the corner these days with stupid undefendable maul rules. No one kicks a 45 m angled penalty anymore.
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On the 3 U20 qualified super rugby players who were left out; J Barnett, R Ioane, S Perofeta.
At the time I thought it was perfectly fine decision re Ioane and Barrett, but thought Perofeta would have found this tournament useful. In last year's tournament he was just the back up 10 and fair few of his minutes were at 15.
But now in hindsight. Perofeta has had a starting game in the intensity of a Lions tour match in front of 40k fans. That will be a great experience for him.
As for the U20s; Falcon has started every game. It's unclear who his back up is out of Leger and McKay. I'd say they're thin there.
Both Barrett and Ioane have made the All Blacks, wasn't picking that.
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@Rapido said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
It seems the only real selection conundrum is at centre with Ennor v Tua. I would go Ennor, and my hunch is that is their first choice anyway but Tua knocked the door down when Ennor was ill. But Ennor looks pure class to me.
I liked the look of Slade at 6 too. He was poor at lock vs Scotland but seemed more comfortable at blindside. But I'm sure Papali'i will come back into the team so Slade may switch to lock again.
I would still have concerns about our scrum with Fidow at TH, although he did better than I thought. When Coxon was at TH in the Scottish game with the same LH and hooker we were dominant.
Defending the lineout drive will be key to success in this tournament. The backs will score tries so we just need to not concede unnecessary penalties to allow kicks to the corner.
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@Rapido said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
On the 3 U20 qualified super rugby players who were left out; J Barnett, R Ioane, S Perofeta.
At the time I thought it was perfectly fine decision re Ioane and Barrett, but thought Perofeta would have found this tournament useful. In last year's tournament he was just the back up 10 and fair few of his minutes were at 15.
But now in hindsight. Perofeta has had a starting game in the intensity of a Lions tour match in front of 40k fans. That will be a great experience for him.
As for the U20s; Falcon has started every game. It's unclear who his back up is out of Leger and McKay. I'd say they're thin there.
Both Barrett and Ioane have made the All Blacks, wasn't picking that.
Falcon is generally a very good kicker. He made almost all his kicks during the Canes preseason, including the game winning penalty in the Hurricanes U21 v Argentina U21 game. In this tournament, his kicking percentage is 66.66% (20/30 kicks at goal). He'll be disappointed with that, but the rest of his game is excellent. He has played the full 80 minutes in the first and third game, and was subbed off in the second game after 59 minutes. That's a lot of game time, but he is the only specialist 10 in the squad. His back-up is Leger (who kicked at goal at the end of the second game), but while Falcon is a 10 who can play 12, Leger is a 12 who can play 10. It's a bit of the same with McKay, he can play 10 but isn't a specialist.
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@Stargazer said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
@Rapido said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:
On the 3 U20 qualified super rugby players who were left out; J Barnett, R Ioane, S Perofeta.
At the time I thought it was perfectly fine decision re Ioane and Barrett, but thought Perofeta would have found this tournament useful. In last year's tournament he was just the back up 10 and fair few of his minutes were at 15.
But now in hindsight. Perofeta has had a starting game in the intensity of a Lions tour match in front of 40k fans. That will be a great experience for him.
As for the U20s; Falcon has started every game. It's unclear who his back up is out of Leger and McKay. I'd say they're thin there.
Both Barrett and Ioane have made the All Blacks, wasn't picking that.
Falcon is generally a very good kicker. He made almost all his kicks during the Canes preseason, including the game winning penalty in the Hurricanes U21 v Argentina U21 game. In this tournament, his kicking percentage is 66.66% (20/30 kicks at goal). He'll be disappointed with that, but the rest of his game is excellent. He has played the full 80 minutes in the first and third game, and was subbed off in the second game after 59 minutes. That's a lot of game time, but he is the only specialist 10 in the squad. His back-up is Leger (who kicked at goal at the end of the second game), but while Falcon is a 10 who can play 12, Leger is a 12 who can play 10. It's a bit of the same with McKay, he can play 10 but isn't a specialist.
McKay hasnt played 10 since leaving school. He starts at 14 or 15 for Lincoln university every week.
Pretty obvious they see his future in the outside backs.
