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Australia Sevens rep Lancaster stars as Junior Wallabies beat Fiji

(Source/World Rugby)

A double to Australia men’s Sevens rep Darby Lancaster has propelled the Junior Wallabies to a 47-36 win over Fiji U20 in their opening pool clash at the World Rugby U20 Championships.

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The barnstorming left winger produced the match-winning try with 12th minutes remaining with Australia behind 37-36.

A wide shift from outside their own 22 to the left put Lancaster down the edge, he rounded Fiji’s defence to score untouched under the posts before a final penalty goal put the game out of Fiji’s reach.

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Australia were made to work for the result after Fiji hit back at opportune times just as the Junior Wallabies looked like running away with the game.

Lancaster’s first try, cutting back inside traffic after a Taj Annan offload and deft hands from No 8 Leafi Talataina, gave Australia a 17-13 lead which quickly became 24-13 after another try to centre David Vaihu.

Head coach Nathan Grey praised his side for sticking with their game plan which in the end proved too much for the Fijians.

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“It was a fantastic game of footy with lots of tries scored and we’re very happy that we were able to get away with a win. We stuck to our playing style and we were able to get over the line.

“Our attacking ruck was pretty strong; our ball carriers were sometimes too good – we’ve got to speed up our support to make sure we don’t turn those balls over. And maintain our playing style, when we do that we can put teams under pressure and score points.”

Despite being down to 14 men, Fiji responded right on halftime to trail 24-20 at the break.

Australian wing Ronan Leahy struck early in the second half only for Fiji to respond quickly through Kavaia Tagivetaua.

A red card to prop Marley Pearce threatened to derail Australia’s match as Fiji then took the lead through Nakalevu and a penalty goal took the lead out to 37-29.

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The Junior Wallabies needed to respond and reserve flyhalf Jack Bowen was instrumental in bringing Australia home.

Bowen put Melbourne Rebels fullback Mason Gordon over and then converted the try, before linking up with Lancaster for the game-winner.

Captain Nick Baker was happy to come out of the ‘dogfight’ with a result to keep their title hopes alive.

“It was sort of 50-50 at times but we sort of stuck through to the 80th minutes, and finally got that kick in the last 10 minutes that put us over the line. It was a bit of a dogfight but we got there in the end.”

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Hellhound 15 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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