The Silver Fern

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks v France III:

What's the go with Peter Lakai? I think that bench spot would be more suited to him when fit.

Lakai got an injury during the Brumbies quarter-final. From Stuff:

Hooker Asafo Aumua (hamstring) and loose forward Peter Lakai (knee) missed out on the 33-man squad named on Monday due to injury, but were on track to be fit in time for the Rugby Championship.
[...]
Aumua hurt his hamstring during training ahead of the Super Rugby playoffs, while Lakai damaged the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) in his knee during the Hurricanes’ defeat to the Brumbies in Canberra a fortnight ago.

Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360732767/all-blacks-coach-scott-robertson-leaves-door-open-omitted-players

So he should be back for The Rugby Championship. If he's fit and Sititi's still out, I reckon he gets a go at the number 8-jersey. I thought he went very well for the Hurricanes there in the second half of the season.

@Daffy-Jaffy said in WR U20 Championship 2025:

@Mauss Who plays 10 and goal kicks if Rico goes down?

Solomon can play 10, so if Simpson goes down, he would move to first five while Kunawave would go to fullback.

@Kiwidom said in WR U20 Championship 2025:

No Will Cole or Ollie Mathis

No Tengblad either...

Well, I'm fully invested in the Rico Simpson redemption arc now.

@Bones said in All Blacks v France 2:

Well it's a good theory, but what are they going to do? Rotate in half the squad that narrowly lost to an undercooked AB's to play alongside the other half that got spanked?

I guess...? Basically starting the more experienced squad members (Fickou, Villière, Bamba, Bourgarit) with some of the Top 14 finalists (Barassi, Bochaton) as the strongest combination.

That being said, it could just well be some French journalists who are trying to make sense of the whole thing and ending up overthinking it. Who knows, Galthié could end up playing an even less experienced team in Hamilton.

@voodoo said in All Blacks v France 2:

Seems odd that a visiting team would target the dead rubber Game 3 of a series as “the big one” that they want to win, but who the hell understands the French eh?

The logic seems to be that they'll target the third game because that's the game where the ABs were always expected to rotate their squad.

It's less odd when you start out from the premise that the French would be more than happy with a 2-1 series result. Then it makes (sort of) sense that they'd target the Test where the ABs are at their least experienced.

Not particularly in the spirit of the series but it's clear that both sides have very different approaches to these Tests.

I thought the ABs played the right gameplan when you’re coming up against a side like this French team: keep the ball among the forwards, kick smartly and build scoreboard pressure. It makes little sense to overplay against a team that doesn't really want to attack the game themselves, as last week showed, since it allows the opponent to build momentum off defensive wins. I’m guessing next week will be the big one, with several French journalists indicating that this is the game the French will target with their most experienced squad.

So I don’t think there’s a whole lot that can be taken from this game. But there were still some interesting things to note. While I’d be willing to explain the poor 4th quarter performance by losing Vaa’i unexpectedly, there was one sequence of play for which I’m pretty sure a few players are going to get an absolute bollocking.

The sequence starts in the 69th minute in a positive manner, Will Jordan doing well to clean up a French chip into the NZ 22, before, a few hectic phases later, Tavatavanawai puts in a neat little kick through that results in a French goal-line drop-out. It’s here, however, that the issues start. The French are clearly looking to go quickly and retain possession, yet multiple ABs switch off and turn their back to the play. Only Proctor is alert to the situation.

The French end up going quickly and retrieve their own drop-out, before eventually kicking long through Hastoy. Robertson, by all accounts, is a coach who puts a lot of emphasis on effort. What he’ll have seen here, won’t particularly please him. This is the situation when Hastoy puts in the kick, with most players bunched up in the French 22.

McKenzie, who is brought on to speed up the play, keeps the ball from going out and passes to Jordan. The problem, however, is that the AB support is nowhere to be seen, with both the French backs and forwards moving to the space quicker than their jogging counterparts.

As the ball is being turned over by the French bench forward Bastien Vergnes Taillefer, Robertson will have been frustrated by the sight of his own bench forwards, Finau and Tosi, still jogging back onside while the French have already stolen the ball. The French heavy Top 14 forwards, like Taofifenua and Montagne, aren’t particularly renowned for their endurance and work-rate, yet they’ve still arrived before Tosi has even appeared in the frame.

While there’s not a whole lot to gain from this July series – with outstanding performances always being potentially questioned by the lack of top Test opposition – there is, however, a lot that can be lost. Test careers won’t be built on this victory of the Dave Gallaher trophy but a few could well be buried. For some All Blacks, the final Test of the series in Hamilton will have plenty at stake.

If anyone wonders what it feels like to have the weight of a nation on your shoulders, I think Matt Sherratt’s face at the end of that game gives a pretty good indication.

Who’d want to be a coach, eh? That was an intense watch, even for a neutral like myself. Very happy for Wales to finally break their streak, you could tell what it meant for the players and the coaches.

@cgrant said in WR U20 Championship 2025:

What worries me most is the scrum where the loss of Wallace has put a big load on Falatea. I also fear that Pole could not match Megherbi's power. Hopefully, there won't be too many scrums played if the weather is not too hot.

Megherbi is a big boy (138+ kg) but his scrummaging technique is awful. When binding, his hips are already pushing outwards while his right shoulder pops up, immediately indicating his intention for angling in and targeting the bind between the opposition loosehead and hooker.

You can see how Megherbi’s back isn’t straight but angled in a diagonal fashion

Megherbi’s tendency is to scrum high at an inward angle, turning the contest into a battle of strength rather than technique

Megherbi starts at an inward angle and, unsurprisingly, the scrum starts moving sideways with the French pack walking across. Unbelievably, the ref awards the French scrum a penalty despite there being nothing legal about their scrum.

While Megherbi has a lot of power, any referee worth his salt will first penalize his faulty technique when the scrums inevitably collapse or start moving sideways. The French, much like the South Africans, have the advantage of reputation and physique: they’re big guys so referees often award them in the scrum, even when their dominance has an illegal basis.

Hopefully, a set-piece capable ref is appointed for the semi-final who can force Megherbi to scrum straight and make it a fair contest.

@Bovidae said in WR U20 Championship 2025:

if Simpson remains at fullback.

I have such mixed feelings about Simpson at 15. Sometimes I can see the appeal - like when he plucked those Irish cross-kicks out of thin air like it was nothing - but his scramble defence does worry me. And the French transition attack will really test the NZ scramble defence.

My preference would still go to Solomon, I think. I really like the way he combines with Cole, switching roles and kicking duties. It feels very seamless with them. But it does seem more likely that they'll go with Simpson at the back.

With the likely return of Josh Tengblad for the semi-final against the French U20s, a few changes will be required to the NZ U20 back five. Xavier Treacy, Jayden Sa, Finn McLeod, Caleb Woodley and Mosese Bason all started against Ireland, with one of them having to make way for Tengblad’s return to the starting line-up.

It seems likely that both Bason and Woodley will retain their starting jerseys for the semi-final clash, with Fale taking the number 20. The Bason/Fale-double act at number 8 has been a staple of the side throughout the 2025 campaign so we can expect it to continue. Woodley at openside has been the defensive anchor of the side, bringing plenty of intensity with his tackles and breakdown pressure. Oli Mathis is a prodigiously talented 7 in his own right but he’s such a different player to Woodley that the coaches might think that his inclusion would upset the balance of the back 5. [Sidenote: Mathis would be a great option on the bench, though, especially if the coaches were to opt for a 6/2-bench split. Seeing how the midfield bench players have consistently lacked impact when coming on throughout the season, this might not be a bad idea.]

Another certainty, I believe, is Xavier Treacy. A mostly unknown player in NZ rugby circles before this season’s U20 campaign – due to his upbringing in Melbourne – Treacy has quickly cemented his place in the starting line-up, thanks to his reliability at set-piece and his endless work-rate around the field. His 80-minute performance against Ireland was a good example of Treacy’s appetite for work, with a total of 53 involvements (ruck attendances, carry, tackle) throughout the match.

With Tengblad and Treacy on the field, the NZ U20s will have taken an important step towards properly resourcing the attacking breakdown. That leaves the side with just two more spots available, one starting and one on the bench, with 3 lock/6’s to fill those spots. All three players – Sa, Vakasiuola and McLeod – have strong arguments to be involved in the 23.

Sa provides bulk, work-rate and a low turnover-rate through the middle. Vakasiuola gives you more mobility around the field while also presenting a breakdown threat. McLeod, finally, has the most minutes on the field, so he’d give the side cohesion while giving the team another dynamic carrier on the edge.

An important factor to take into account, I think, is the stye of the opponent, with France, as I’ve previously mentioned, lethal in transition off opposition mistakes. I’ve gathered some relevant (if very limited) stats of Sa, Vakasiuola, and McLeod – turnovers conceded (TC), penalties conceded (PC), turnovers won (TW), tackle percentage, lineout rate per 80 minutes (LO%), and defenders beaten (DB) – with that in mind. All numbers are from the games against Italy, Georgia and Ireland in the group stages.

Someone like Jayden Sa has performed well in this regard during the tournament so far, as he hasn’t conceded a turnover while only giving away the solitary penalty in his 76 minutes of gametime across the pool games. But if he were to start against France U20, that would mean a considerable reshuffling of the back 5, with Tengblad most likely playing at 4 and Treacy moving to blindside and taking up a wider role. The question remains, however, how effective this repositioning would be, as Treacy has excelled in his locking play while making very rare appearances on the edge.

Players like McLeod and Vakasiuola, on the other hand, are very comfortable out wide, both on attack and on defence. They’re more dynamic on attack than Sa, having greater mobility and more swift footwork which they can use to beat their defenders. Furthermore, both McLeod and Vakasiuola have shown an ability to get breakdown steals, which could be a handy trait to combat the French pick-and-go within the attacking 22.

Potential back 5 for France U20
4. Tengblad, 5. Sa, 6. Treacy, 19. Vakasiuola, 20. Fale, [21. Mathis?]

One way the NZ U20s could potentially approach the game is to focus on playing tight and emphasizing accuracy around set-piece and the breakdown in the opening stanzas. From this perspective, it would make sense to start with Sa, before eventually turning to Vakasiuola in the 2nd half while looking to attack in a more expansive manner. Another interesting addition would be someone like Mathis in the 21-jersey, covering the flankers and the wingers, while providing plenty of X-factor and attacking vision off the bench.

@OomPB said in WR U20 Championship 2025:

This high scoring games isn't good preparation for the final.

I think this upcoming semi-final against Argentina should say a lot about whether the Junior Bok U20 curse is a real thing or not (9 lost semi-finals in 14 U20 World Championships since 2008).

Argentina U20s are by no means a bad side – they have a great scrum and maul, while also having some quality backs like Senillosa – but clearly, the Junior Boks are a better and more complete team. So they should beat them relatively comfortably. But given the Junior Boks’ history at the tournament, can you really assume that they'll reach the final?

My hope is that the Junior Boks continue playing how they have been during the group stages. It’s been really refreshing to see a Junior Bok side actually make use of the attacking weapons at their disposal, by varying their play off 9 and 10, and moving the ball past the first carrier. Moyo is also looking increasingly comfortable within the Junior Bok attack structure, and he’ll be key if the team is to go all the way.

Next week we will see a repeat of last year’s semi-final between the French and New Zealand U20s. It’ll be a chance for the Baby Blacks to rectify what was, by all accounts, a poor performance, losing 55 to 31 to the French in South Africa. But will they have learned from their erratic showing of 2024?

France U20: a poor match-up for the NZ U20s
Let’s get the uncomfortable truth out of the way, quickly: France are probably the worst possible match-up for the NZ U20s. While the NZ U20s are a side who love to attack (and to be fair, it’s what they’re best at), this kind of attacking mindset can produce a high-rate of turnovers. Against Italy, in their opening game of the 2025 tournament, the NZ U20s produced 17 turnovers; against Georgia, it was much of the same, with 16 turnovers lost. With the ball wet and slippery in Italy’s smouldering summer, the Kiwi attack has given their opponents plenty of opportunities. Luckily for them, however, the Georgians and Italians are rather toothless with the ball, the maul their nearly exclusive weapon of choice.

France U20, on the other hand, are a completely different animal. They are a side who excel in transition and they have turned the punishing of opposition mistakes into an art. In their final game of the group stages against Argentina U20s, the French youth side gave yet another demonstration of their counter-attacking abilities, every Argentinean error and infringement being turned into 7 points. It might as well have been a big warning sign to the NZ U20s.

Here are some of these, seemingly innocuous, Argentina errors.

Argentina clear out the French player beyond the ruck. From the ensuing penalty, the French would maul before eventually going over after pick-and-go’s close to the line

In the next example, Argentina try to go wide but can’t deal with the French defensive line-speed, knocking it on. From the following scrum, the French U20s construct a line-break for their loosehead prop, which is immediately turned into points by the French backline via a Keletaona grubber.

Argentina try to attack the edge, once again, but under-resource the breakdown, leading to a pilfer to French 14, Donguy. From the kick return, the Argentina fullback, Senillosa, kicks it out on the full. Compounding errors and the French inside the Argentina 22, this would quickly lead to yet another try

From another restart, the Argentina blindside flanker flies into contact while the French kick receiver is still in the air, leading to yet another penalty. It triggers another series of attacks inside the Argentinean half, with the French backline eventually able to find the space out wide for yet another score.

Four small mistakes, all conceded in and around the middle of the park, yet quickly leading to French scores. The scoreline reads: 26 to zip in favour of the French, and the game was largely decided after 13 minutes.

Returning to the 2024 semi-final
The only question that remains is whether the Baby Blacks needed the reminder. For some, like Pledger, Simpson and Bason, much of the Argentina-France game will have looked uncomfortably similar to their own memories of last year’s semi-final. Just like it was for the Argentina U20s, every NZ U20 mistake that day was brutally exposed by a shark-like French side, the Kiwi errors acting like a drop of blood in the water.

And there were more than a few drops. The Baby Blacks turned the ball over a staggering 26 times that day. Some of it was of course due to French pressure, through defensive line-speed and their attack of the breakdown. Other turnovers, however, were more akin to self-sabotage.

While the team’s spine is typically viewed as its game-drivers, responsible for leading the team in open play and at set-piece, those drivers that day were leading the team less towards victory and more towards the edge of a cliff. Those 5 players – Vernon and Mosese Bason at hooker and number 8, Pledger and Simpson at halfback, and Sam Coles at fullback – were collectively responsible for no less than 14 turnovers.

The desire to attack, no matter the position on the field, lay at the foundation of these turnovers. Whereas the French were more than willing to kick for territory, the NZ U20 drivers consistently ran the ball back to attack, with rather predictable results.

Reus kicks the ball into the NZ 22 and Simpson carries the ball back. The NZ U20 carriers and support players are, however, not in sync, leading to an easy turnover to France. With a French player in the bin, Reus decides to go for 3, killing time and gaining momentum and scoreboard pressure.

Simpson would continue with this running tactic on kick return – likely due to coaching design – but the results would keep on repeating. Again, he is turned over at the breakdown and, again, the French kick for 3, moving further and further away on the scoreboard.

This theme of all-out attack would also come to the fore when the Baby Blacks had the ball themselves, with Simpson trying to gain maximum advantage when kicking for the line after a penalty was awarded. On two occasions, however, this attitude blew up in the NZ U20s’ faces.

In the first instance, Simpson fails to find touch while the kick return from Reus results in a 50-22. The French would go on to score from this possession inside the NZ 22. In the second, right before halftime, Simpson kicks the ball dead, with the opportunity for a vital score in pushing the comeback, squandered.

Summary
It should come as no surprise, after the last few results, that the French U20s are a poor match-up for the Baby Blacks. But, for a rugby country that loves talking about ‘learnings’, there is perhaps no better opportunity for the NZ U20s to show that they have, indeed, learned their lesson from last year's semi-final defeat.

Give these French U20s an opportunity and you will pay the price. The NZ U20s will still need to attack but they will need to be accurate and kick smartly. It is clear that they have worked on certain things, kicking long throughout the 2025 campaign and trying to be more accurate around the breakdown. But if they fail to do so in their upcoming semi-final, however, nobody should be surprised that history will always, if given the chance, repeat itself.

An article on the physically biggest players at the U20 World Championship and you'll never guess who makes an appearance. It's our openside giant, Caleb Woodley:

Caleb Woodley – New Zealand
While one of the lighter players on this list, Caleb Woodley is anything but small for a flanker. At 197cm and 122kg, the Auckland-born Blues back-rower is a towering presence with the frame of a second-row and the engine of a loose forward. A serious prospect in New Zealand’s 2025 U20 squad.

A serious prospect indeed, even if you take into account his actual measurements. Well, I think we can conclude two things from this: the journalists at RugbyPass don't watch any of the actual rugby and, more worryingly, they don't read the Fern!

@brodean said in All Blacks v France I:

He has the tools but I don't think its in his nature. It's difficult to teach an old dog new tricks and I feel that at 31 that's his instinct.

The carry stats are wrong and where I think we struggled in the game. The highlighted should not be carrying that much considering their roles.

Top Carries

18 Ardie Savea
17 Damian Mckenzie
15 Will Jordan
14 Beauden Barrett
13 Fabian Holland

I do think Savea could be a good openside option, especially within Robertson’s system, which seems to be based around ball-movement, constantly shifting the point of attack and getting in behind the opposition defence. Due to the sheer dynamism of the attack – 259 passes, 9 offloads, 182 ball carries, 425 post-contact metres, 13 line-breaks against France – I think it’s very difficult for a classical openside to consistently stay close to the source without being exhausted after 10 minutes.

So what’s important for an openside in this system is game understanding, the ability to cut corners around the field and anticipate what’s going to happen. And I do think someone like Savea has an uncanny ability to see certain plays unfold before they’ve occurred, whether it’s a line-break or an opposition player becoming isolated. So I’d like to see him given an extended run in the jersey, and see whether he can adapt to the requirements.

But what Robertson does need to be mindful of, I think, in the upcoming tests is to have enough “fresh” carrying options on the field at all times. In the France game, Lio-Willie spent the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half mostly just tackling and cleaning, which meant that Savea did most of the hard carries through the middle on his own. If Robertson goes to his bench earlier – bringing on Taukei’aho and Norris, for example, at halftime – then I think it would’ve been easier for Savea to share the carrying load and maintain his own energy levels.

@Catogrande said in NH International Rugby:

George Ford did his George Ford thing vey well.

I thought Ford was pretty spectacular. If there’s any young first fives in New Zealand who wonder how you should play flat to the line, they’d do well to take a close look at George Ford’s game against Argentina in La Plata.

I’ll highlight just one period in the game which I think exemplifies Ford’s flat style of play, focusing on the English multiphase sequence in the 28th minute in the first half originating from a lineout attack near the Argentina 22. During the six phases that follow the successful lineout, Ford touches the ball 6 times, each time in touching distance from the Argentina defensive line.

Ford made sure to play right on top of the Argentina defensive line, constantly being in motion while drawing defenders onto him, before releasing the ball to other players in movement. He made sure to vary his distribution, constantly shifting the point of the attack.

With the Argentina defence fragmented and running out of numbers, Ford ups the tempo further and moves into an even flatter position, seeking to land the killer blow.

It was very nearly a perfect attacking sequence. While the movement ultimately came to naught due to a Roebuck knock-on, it was a sign of things to come. Ford would further dismantle the Argentinean defence in the second half, the game eventually finishing 35 to 12 in favour of the visitors. While Ford has his detractors, I’m not sure there are a lot of first fives in rugby union who come close to his ability to play flat. When he’s on like this, he’s a joy to watch.

Ardie Savea’s 50 minutes at openside
The international game, both past and present, has seen a plethora of player-types occupying the 7-jersey in Test rugby. When asked in 2008 by World Rugby what exactly constituted an openside flanker, Josh Kronfeld gave a typically blunt answer: “You’ve got to have good handling skills, good vision, be a bit of mongrel. You want to be able to be doing stuff, grovelling on the ground as well as doing the airy fairy stuff upright with the ball in hand so you have to be pretty well rounded in terms of your rugby skills.”

Within this broad range of skills, each seven will look for their own identity, whether it be through jackalling (Pocock), disrupting the breakdown (McCaw), being a defensive stopper (Dusautoir, Cane) or being a link-man on attack between forwards and backs (Michael Jones). Looking at Ardie Savea’s game, it is clear that he mostly belongs to this latter tradition of the offensive openside, who excels through his vision and support in attack.

This support play was quickly apparent against the French and was a feature throughout the game. In the 15th minute, from a scrum around the halfway line, the ABs break the line through a tidy set-piece move from midfield. After a quick recycle and with McKenzie at first receiver, Savea has positioned himself on the former’s inside shoulder, in perfect position for an inside pass and a potential linebreak. McKenzie chooses to go outside, though, the pass eventually being intercepted by an alert Attissogbe.

But what about some of these other core facets of openside play, the mongrel and the grovelling on the ground? Here, I think it’s fair to say that Savea was selective yet impactful. The breakdown, during Savea’s stint at openside, was relatively safe and quick, with 62% of the ruck speed between between 0-3 seconds. Only two ruck turnovers were conceded, both to diminutive winger, Gabin Villière. One, in the 6th minute, when Holland and Barrett couldn’t shift him and once more in the 45th minute, again beating Scott Barrett to the ball after a Roigard linebreak.

Was Savea at fault for these turnovers? Yes and no. Again, Savea was selective rather than omnipresent at the breakdown but he was effective when and where he cleaned. Here, in the 38th minute with the ABs on attack in the French 22, Savea puts in a strong shoulder, cleaning out a well-positioned Guillard, and preventing a certain turnover.

At other points, he was able to effectively slow down the French ball, by wrapping up the opposition ball carrier and disrupting the momentum of the French attack.

Savea worked well together with Lio-Willie during the first half, often combining in defence and attack as dual menaces around the ruck area

So why was he partially at fault for the Villière turnovers? While Savea certainly tried to fulfil his openside responsibilities to Test standard, during the opening stanza of the second half especially, he lost control of the balance between these responsibilities and his own specialty, the carrying game.

After another gruelling series of carries through the middle early in the second half, it quickly becomes apparent that Savea has overexerted himself. So when Cam Roigard wants to put pace in the attack by going for the quick tap, Savea no longer has the energy to follow him.

Savea, seen here farthest on the right, can’t keep up with the AB attack

The final 5 minutes of Savea’s stint at openside also equal his weakest. After being unable to keep up with Roigard, he compounds his fatigue-induced, erratic play by, first, being unable to close the defensive gap for the van Tonder linebreak, and then second, when defending the try-line in the subsequent phase, Savea allows Woki to go underneath him for the score.

Herein also lies the biggest ‘learning’ (apologies, I couldn’t resist!) for the flanker/number 8-hybrid. Savea hasn’t played openside at Test level for a number of years. Looking at this game, I think it’s reasonable to suggest that he has both the tools and the brain to ultimately be effective in the position. But what he will need to do, however, is make sure he finds the proper balance between his carrying game and his openside responsibilities, being careful not to blow his engine when racking up the carries into a crowded defence.

Having more carriers on the field - like Williams, Sititi and Taukei'aho - should at least help with this, so Savea isn't tempted to take up too much of the carrying load on his own shoulders. Then again, Savea needs to be smarter as well, and self-regulate his energy levels.

Tldr; Savea can be a 7 at Test level, in my view, as he has the tools and brain for the position but will need to be careful not to overexert himself with his carrying game, neglecting his openside duties.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France I:

I'm at the 30 minute mark. We played excellent excellent attack. Proctor chucks a shocker. We lose a turnover, field a kick in our own end, try running it out, then kick a cross field kick to touch just outside our 22.

I thought Jordan played very well throughout this game but at that point, when he was alone in possession inside his own 22, he just needed to kick and find touch around the halfway line and allow the team to reset.

They're improving in their decision-making but they're still susceptible to some silly errors. It's like the famous Shakespeare line: "My kingdom for some relatively intelligent backs."

Also, I know we're gradually sliding into fullblown conspiracy mode but Barlot pretty clearly knocked the ball on in the lead-up to the French try just after halftime.

Not sure why the TMO didn't intervene there. Or perhaps there were too many phases between the knock-on and the try? (my eye involuntarily twitched when writing that)

@booboo said in All Blacks v France I:

A couple of defensive errors made them look good.

Just on this, the French attack did some nice things when they had the opportunity as well.

The second French try of the second half, which started with the van Tonder linebreak, came from the French reserve tighthead, Montagne, throwing a cut-out pass.

There is not a defender in world rugby which thinks that from this situation, the tighthead is going to fling a bullet across the face of the defensive line. Beautiful play by Montagne, a play any first five would be proud of.

Well, it finished 35-21 to France U20s, 28 unanswered points in the second half as the Welsh U20s ran out of gas as well as losing a player to a red card for an illegal clean-out.

An unfortunate turn of events for Wales U20s after what was a fantastic performance in the first half. But also impressive how the French U20s kept calm, did the basics well until the Welsh eventually cracked. Impactful appearance as well from the French reserve 9, Simon Daroque, who put some real pace into the French attack in sweltering conditions.

Fulltime: Wales U20 21-35 France U20