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Four World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final talking points
By Liam Heagney
What a difference a dry day can make. Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town began with a blue sky, quite the contrast to match day there’s brutal weather, and it stayed dry, encouraging teams to give it a lash.
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The outcome kept the scoreboard operators busy at DHL Stadium and in Stellenbosch. Fifty tries were scored across the six match day four matches which featured a total of 379 points. Here are the RugbyPass talking points:
Allez les bleuets
Just when you thought there was steel to the New Zealand re-emergence at the U20s level, along came France to produce a wonderfully potent reminder of why they have dominated this age grade in recent times. The calibre of the French play in the Championship’s second semi-final was lethal and while the ultimate 7-5 try count in their favour suggests a close competitiveness, it was a hammering they gave to the Baby Blacks.
What their magnificent 55-31 knockout win highlighted 10 days after were pipped by the Kiwis by a point in a pool match was that first-team exposure at this level is invaluable. French No10 Hugo Reus was majestic in what he concocted and so to was the hat-tricking scoring No8 Mathis Castro-Ferreira.
The pair arrived in South Africa off the back of identical records in the 2023/24 Top 14, each starting in nine of their respective 15 appearances for La Rochelle and Toulouse, and that experience was a level up from what New Zealand had in their armoury.
France produced a try-scoring masterclass against New Zealand! ? ?? #WorldRugbyU20s | #NZLvFRA pic.twitter.com/HekvmchiV5
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) July 15, 2024
“They’re pro players, absolutely,” conceded Jono Gibbes in the aftermath of his team’s loss. “They showed their class and they have been regularly exposed to (first team rugby) with their clubs. They were really on point but honestly, the whole team as a collective, were strong tonight, real consistent and executed when they needed to. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”
It meant that the four-in-a-row title-seeking French have now won 17 of their last 19 Championship matches and they will be supremely confident of securing the victory next Friday that will see them equal New Zealand’s four-in-a-row stretch from 2008 to 2011 when the tournament was launched following the amalgamation of the U19 and U21 grades.
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Prop pain
No scrum, no chance. That was ultimately the disappointing reality for Ireland in their 31-20 semi-final loss to England. There was only an 11-point margin on the scoreboard at the finish, but it felt like so much more as the one-sided second half was a shadow of the you-score-we-score, end-to-end frolics of a first half that ended with the English narrowly ahead 22-20.
The overall scrum penalty count was six-zero in favour of Finn Carnduff and co, and the fear that had existed all year about the Irish in this sector painfully came home to roost.
It was last December, on the Friday before Christmas, when RugbyPass glimpsed at first-hand their propping difficulties as what was set to be an easy friendly win over Italy became a brutal second-half slog in which there were cards shown to props for failing to keep up the scrum.
The trump card in the wonderfully successful Ireland U20s era with Richie Murphy at the helm was that they always somehow found a way to roll with the punches and find a way through their weaknesses by excellently succeeding in other areas.
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Having taken up the top job at Ulster following their unbeaten campaign in the 2024 age-grade Six Nations (they finished second to England by a point), Murphy’s coaching was missed at the Championship. He is in Cape Town as a fan, supporting his son Jack who is the Irish out-half, but you have to imagine he would surely have had something up his sleeve in Sunday’s second half to re-energise Ireland if he was in the coaches box and not allow the contest fizzle out.
Propping is going to be a major talking point in Irish rugby in the next few years. New high-performance boss David Humphreys, who was sat in the DHL Stadium media area watching the 20s, revealed last Wednesday in Durban that no foreign props can be signed by the provinces from the 2025/26 season onwards due to the need to get indigenous talent into teams and enhance what is available at Test level to Andy Farrell.
That could harm the provinces as it takes time to mould real-deal props but needs must. This U20s campaign has highlighted that the pathway needs better nurturing.
Argie class
One Test boss who should be licking his lips at what has unfolded at the Championship is Felipe Contepomi. The loss of the Buenos Aires-based Jaguares during the pandemic had a downturn on the fortunes of the country’s senior team.
However, Michael Cheika rode to the rescue, stabilising the situation and getting them to a fourth-place Rugby World Cup finish last October before handing the baton to his mate Felipe.
While he was busy in recent weeks securing a Test series draw with France, he will have kept tabs on the many shining lights who have Los Pumitas now spoiling for a fifth-place finish in Cape Town when they take on Australia on Friday.
They were immense on July 4 destroying the Junior Boks 31-12 on a winter’s weather night in Stellenbosch and they unsurprisingly dominant again 10 days in the sunnier conditions at the DHL.
The way they maul is a thing of beauty and while the end result was only a 34-24 win over South Africa, their Efrain Elias-inspired team were more convincing winners than that 10-point margin suggests.
Dogos and Pampas have filled the professional game void left in Argentina by Jaguares’ demise, but there will be numerous agents looking to bring a chunk of this talented U20s class of 2024 to the European club game. Quite a pick is at their disposal.
Juan Greising Revol crashes over for Argentina's first try! ?#WorldRugbyU20s | #ARGvRSA pic.twitter.com/EUIQysvDHA
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) July 14, 2024
Fijian flair
We didn’t get to watch in-person the three matches at the Danie Craven in Stellenbosch as the kick-offs clashed with the schedule in Cape Town, but flicking through the highlights it was great to see Fiji finally stitch their attack together and score six tries.
That harvest still wasn’t enough for the win, as the five-try Georgia brought their kicking boots and landed enough attempts to secure a 40-36 win.
However, the hat-trick-scoring right winger Aisea Nawai caught the eye and the indications are that the Fijians should have more than enough to defeat Championship newcomers Spain in the relegation play-off.
The Spanish were robust enough to cause Italy a few headaches but indiscipline was their huge handicap in a 28-15 loss. They had two yellow cards and conceded a penalty try in a count that was 18-7 against them. That hurt.
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