Junior Boks splutter, NZ stutter, Ireland squander and France strut on World Rugby Champs opening day

Louie Hennessey of Wales during the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023, group A match between Wales and New Zealand at Paarl Gimnasium on 24 June 2023 in Paarl, South Africa. (Photo: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images / World Rugby)

By Craig Ray

25 Jun 2023

The World Rugby Under-20 Championship, back after a four-year hiatus, produced sparkling rugby on day one.

The six matches produced some close results and set the tone for what is going to be an intriguing and entertaining three weeks of competition in the Western Cape.

Ireland, the 2023 Under-20 Six Nations Grand Slam winners, were impressive in patches but ultimately drew 34–34 against a dogged England at Paarl Gimnasium thanks to their own largesse.

Leinster flyhalf Sam Prendergast, the youngster anointed as the next Johnny Sexton, showed glimpses of his talents, scoring a try and pulling the strings neatly to bring teammates into the game.

But he missed four out of six conversions, which were comfortably kickable, and that was eventually the difference between winning and losing for one of the pre-tournament favourites.

By contrast England’s Connor Slevin landed five from five off the tee, underlining the value of accurate goalkicking, even at this level.

“Sam’s goalkicking is not a concern for me. Sam’s a top class goalkicker but he had a bad day. Like any team, you can’t just rely on your goalkicker to win the game for you,” said Ireland coach Richie Murphy.

“He will be very disappointed and will work hard on it. But he will move on pretty quickly.”

Still, Ireland and England managed to earn three points each from the contest – two points for the draw and one try-scoring bonus point. That means they are both still in the race for a semi-final in the cutthroat system.

The top team in each pool advances to the semis, with the best second-placed team across the three pools taking the fourth spot.

Ireland centre Hugh Cooney was red-carded late in the game for a head clash tackle, which left him likely to miss 29 June’s crunch encounter against Australia owing to suspension. It also left him groggy and possibly concussed.

Murphy accepted the red card but he felt several other similar incidents were not punished in the same way.

“I can understand why the red card was issued [to Cooney], but I can’t understand how three or four other head shots in the game were missed,” Murphy said.

“There was a double head shot when [England flank] Greg Fisilau was yellow-carded, so I don’t understand it at all.”

Lasha Tsikhistavi (C) of Georgia U20 during the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023, group C match between South Africa and Georgia at Danie Craven Stadium on 24 June 2023 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images / World Rugby)

Spluttering Junior Boks

The Junior Boks produced a staccato performance in their opener against the abrasive Georgians at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch, winning 33–23.

It was far from polished but also understandable considering the Junior Boks’ only warm-up matches for the tournament have been against senior Western Cape club sides such as Hamiltons.

They came into the tournament a little underdone but secured victory, and with Italy next up, they have given themselves a chance to grow into the tournament.

Flyhalf Jean Smith scored 18 points from three conversions and four penalties.

South Africa held a 20–7 lead at the break, but allowed Georgia to close the gap to 20–18, before putting daylight between themselves and their European opponents once more.

“We have not played as much test match rugby as the other teams, who for example, played in the Six Nations tournament, so there was always going to be hiccups in our performance,” said coach Bafana Nhleko.

“The fact that we had to dig deep, especially in that second half when Georgia came back strongly, was what we needed to find that trigger that comes with playing at this level. I thought the team responded well in the latter stages of the game and that bodes well going into the next game.”

For Nhleko the gremlins in the performance were the scrum penalties conceded and the way the team defended in the early part of the second half.

“We will have a look to see what went wrong with regards to those penalties and will need to fix them. We were outflanked on the outside and Georgia managed to get around us for their second try, so that is something we will work on. We were guilty of not folding quickly enough and not getting our bounce for width at that time and they exploited it.”

The experience gained of playing tests and of their intensity will help the squad get better and better as the tournament goes on, said Nhleko.

“We saw in the other results that there were a couple of tight games. It just points out what a competitive tournament this is, and the more we play at this level, the better we will get.”

Wales scare Baby Blacks

A few thousand vocal New Zealand supporters at Paarl Gim were largely silenced as Wales stunned the Baby Blacks to lead 19-5 at halftime.

But, in true Kiwi fashion, the youngsters fought back to win 27–26 against a Wales side that were hardly in the match in the second half. New Zealand, playing with a stiff breeze at their backs in the second half, scored 22 unanswered points in the third quarter to set up their victory despite a late Wales try.

Besides some excellent tries that raised the spirits of their supporters, the arrival of New Zealand’s replacement scrumhalf brought a murmur of chuckling.

The announcer telling the crowd that “Jordi Viljoen” had taken the field for New Zealand, sent a buzz. Jordi’s father, Joggie, was sitting nearby and he managed to raise a smile as well.

Joggie was an excellent scrumhalf in his own right, having played SA Schools in 1993 and 1994 and Super Rugby for the Stormers during the “Men in Black” years in 1999-2000.

Joggie also toured with the Boks in 1996 and played three matches but never featured in a Test. He moved to New Zealand in 2006. His son is now also a man in black.

“Everyone was pretty relaxed [at halftime]; we started the game well but we then gave away a lot of possession and territory,” said New Zealand coach Clark Laidlaw.

“We knew if we could get a bit of field position playing down the hill and with the wind at our backs that we could build pressure. We just needed to understand how to build pressure and keep hold of the ball.”

France make the most of advantages

France ran in 11 tries to open their Championship account with an emphatic 75–12 win over Japan at the Danie Craven Stadium.

Les Bleuets, who lifted the trophy in the last two tournaments in 2018 and 2019 (Covid ended the tournament for four years), made the most of their size and power advantage.

Australia, the side beaten in the 2019 final by France, had a much trickier encounter against Fiji in a match that kept fans on the edge of their seats with the Junior Wallabies coming from behind late on to triumph 46–37.

Los Pumitas flyhalf Juan Baronio produced a Player of the Match performance as his team beat Italy 43-15 in the opening match of the tournament.

Baronio scored one of his side’s six tries and added 11 points with the boot, including a monstrous drop goal from halfway.

The honour of scoring the first points of this year’s tournament, though, belonged to his opposite number, Giovanni Sante, who slotted a simple penalty in the third minute after Argentina loose-head Matías Medrano jumped out of the defensive line too quickly. DM

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South Africa

Spluttering Junior Boks

Wales scare Baby Blacks

France make the most of advantages