2018 New Zealand U20s
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U20 Championship 2018: Did you know ...?
We bring you some statistics to whet your appetite ahead of the start of the World Rugby U20 Championship 2018 in France on Wednesday With only five days to go until the 11th edition of the World Rugby U20 Championship kicks off in France, we bring you some statistics to whet your appetite ahead of what looks set to be the most competitive tournament yet. On the road … The host nation has only won the tournament twice, South Africa in 2012 and England in 2016 Trophy lifters … The 10 winning captains are Chris Smith (2008), Aaron Cruden (2009), Tyler Bleyendaal (2010), Luke Whitelock (2011), Wiaan Liebenberg (2012), Jack Clifford (2013), Maro Itoje (2014), Atunaisa Moli (2015), Harry Mallinder (2016) and Luke Jacobson (2017) Final appearances … England (8), New Zealand (7), South Africa (2), Wales (1), Australia (1) and Ireland (1) Winning percentage … New Zealand have an 85.71 per cent success rate in finals, having won on six of their seven appearances. England have reached eight finals but won only three Semi-final heartbreak … Argentina and France are the only other sides to make a semi-final Record-breakers ... New Zealand ripped up the U20 Championship record books in beating England 64-17 in the 2017 final, scoring the most tries and points in a title decider Welcome back to France … France becomes the second country after Italy to host the pinnacle event of age-grade rugby twice, having first hosted in 2013 Top for tries … New Zealand winger Tevita Li (main picture) scored a record 13 tries across his two appearances in the U20 Championship Ten of the best … Australia’s Andrew Kellaway holds the record for the most tries in a single U20 Championship with 10 in 2014 Welcome back … Japan bounced back to the U20 Championship stage at the first attempt by winning the sister event, the U20 Trophy in 2017 Longest unbeaten run … New Zealand won their first 21 matches in the U20 Championship before slipping to a shock 9-6 defeat to Wales in the 2012 pool stagesFast-tracked … Handré Pollard suffered heartbreak in the 2014 final as South Africa captain and was named Junior Player of the Year, but eight days later the fly-half enjoyed the high of making his Springbok debut against Scotland The future stars of world rugby … More than 570 players have taken part in an U20 Championship and gone on to play test rugby Breeding ground … Argentina boast the most of these U20 Championship graduates with 58 In on the act … Five nations who have never graced the U20 Championship stage have capped players who have played in the tournament in the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Romania, Spain and Zimbabwe World Rugby Men's Player of the Year … Brodie Retallick became the first U20 graduate to receive the accolade in 2014 and was followed by his fellow All Black Beauden Barrett in 2016 and 2017. The likes of David Pocock, Julian Savea, Leigh Halfpenny, Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola have all been nominated for the award. Back to back … All Black Sam Whitelock is the only U20 graduate with two Rugby World Cup winners’ medals RWC winners … There were three U20 graduates in the All Blacks' RWC 2011 winning squad on home soil and 10 four years later in England Quarter-time … More than a quarter of players at RWC 2015 had come through the U20 Championship pathway. If you include U20 Trophy graduates that figure rises to more than a third Kicking competition … In the knockout stages, only once in 10 tournaments has a kicking competition been required to decide the winner of a match – in 2010 when hosts Argentina beat Wales 9-8 to reach the fifth-place play-off after the sides had been locked at 19-19 after extra-time. First draw … France and South Africa played out the first draw in the pool stages of an U20 Championship last year in Georgia, the Junior Springboks converting a last-gasp try to salvage a 23-23 draw Most capped graduate … Sam Whitelock (New Zealand) with 96 tests First U20 Championship graduate … Alatasi Tupou of Samoa made his debut against New Zealand on 3 September, 2008 and now captains Samoa on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Most recent U20 Championship graduate … Mathieu Babillot of France, who made his debut against Wales on 17 March -
The NZ U20s team to play Japan has been named. Probably the easiest opponent of the tournament, so that may explain why this isn't the strongest possible line-up.
Kick-off: 7.00am NZT; LIVE on Duke.
Squad:
1 Xavier Numia - Wellington
2 Flynn Thomas - Southland
3 Tevita Mafileo - Bay of Plenty
4 John Akau'ola-Laula - Auckland
5 Will Tucker - Canterbury
6 Tom Florence - Taranaki
7 Tom Christie - captain - Canterbury
8 Hoskins Sotutu - Auckland
9 Xavier Roe - Waikato
10 Kaleb Trask - Bay of Plenty
11 Leicester Faingaanuku - Ta$man
12 Billy Proctor - Wellington
13 Bailyn Sullivan - Waikato
14 Jamie Spowart - Ta$man
15 Vilimoni Koroi - Otago
16 Ricky Jackson -Otago
17 Sione Asi - Manawatu
18 Rob Cobb - Auckland
19 Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa - Auckland
20 Will Tremain - Hawke's Bay
21 Jay Renton - Southland
22 Harry Plummer - Auckland
23 Scott Gregory - NorthlandIn selecting the team for the first match against Japan, Philpott said workload management was at front of mind. “We’ve got five Test matches in 19 days and a squad of 28; you need to make sure you manage combinations so that you get the very best out of all 28 players. Over these first two games we want to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to contribute and so we are managing the workload accordingly.”http://www.allblacks.com/News/32483/nz-under-20-side-named-world-cup-opener-against-japan
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I admit to being a critic of Sky, but this shows how things deteriorate when Sky isn't the broadcaster in NZ. This year, we can only watch two games from each match day (on tv and online). IIRC, Sky used to televise two games (live) simultaneously on two different channels, and show replays of the other games.
This is Duke's broadcast schedule for match day 1 (on tv and online):
day NZ date NZT Local match where pool watch/results Thu 31 May 4.30am 6.30pm* S Africa v Georgia Perpignan C Thu 31 May 4.30am 6.30pm* England v Argentina Narbonne B Thu 31 May 4.30am 6.30pm* Scotland v Italy Béziers B Duke (live); replay 2.50pm (Thu) Thu 31 May 7.00am 9.00pm* New Zealand v Japan Narbonne A Duke (live); replay 4.40pm (Thu) / 11.35am (Sat) Thu 31 May 7.00am 9.00pm* Australia v Wales Béziers A Thu 31 May 7.00am 9.00pm* France v Ireland Perpignan C ^previous day
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Edit: all games will be livestreamed on the World Rugby website, but may be geo-blocked.
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This is the Japanese squad (15 - 1): Kyohei Yamasawa, Halatoa Vailea, Siosaia Fifita, Yuto Mori, Koga Nezuka, Hiroto Mamada, Shinobu Fujiwara; Asipeli Moala, Hisanobu Okayama, Kai Yamamoto, Ryuga Hashimoto, Kanji Shimokawa, Gakuto Ishida, Miyu Arai, Yusuke Yamada.
Reserves: Yuichiro Taniguchi, Ryunosuke Momoji, Rento Tsukayama, Kaito Aibe, Shota Fukui, Atora Hondo, Yu Saruta, Yoshiyuki Koga.
Some Pacific names in that squad.
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Stats after 14 minutes:
Tackles made:
15 by both teamsTackles missed:
1 NZ
15 JapanThat will be more now. Spowart dots down after a pass from Roe after the line-out. Unfortunately, the pass was forward, so the try is correctly disallowed. 15 minutes gone.
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Wow, what an awesome coast-to-coast try from Bailyn Sullivan! Best try thus far. Should add that Japan's defence is awful.
Very good kick from Trask: 31 - 0 after 22 minutes. This is going to be a massacre. As expected, against the weakest opponent in the tournament.
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Defence and set piece highlights of nz first half. Agree about Sotutu, Flanders far better option
