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‘We’re hungry’: Junior Wallabies skipper believes team can win world title

Toby MacPherson of Australia in ac during The Rugby Championship U20 Round 1 match between Australia and Argentina at Sunshine Coast Stadium on May 02, 2024 in Sunshine Coast, Australia. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Australia U20 captain Toby MacPherson remains confident that the Junior Wallabies “could win” their first-ever world title later this year even though they finished last in the inaugural Rugby Championship U20 on the Sunshine Coast.

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The Junior Wallabies have finished second at the World Rugby U20 Championship twice, which included a run to the final at the 2019 decider in Argentina. Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson, Noah Lolesio and Mark Nawaqanitawase were among those in the star-studded squad.

While Australia’s fourth-place finish in the Rugby Championship this month may not build them up as a team who can shock the world, there’s no denying they were improving throughout the tournament which ended with a heartbreaking defeat to New Zealand.

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Toby Macpherson excited for the U20 World Championship | TRC U20

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Toby Macpherson excited for the U20 World Championship | TRC U20

Following a heavy loss to Argentina and a hard-fought win over South Africa, the Nathan Grey-coached Australia outfit went toe-to-toe with a red-hot New Zealand side on Sunday evening. It was a one-point game with 10 minutes to play but the Kiwis managed to pull away.

“Disappointed” was the first word that came out of Toby MacPherson’s mouth in an interview after the 36-25 defeat. Every Australian player who walked up the tunnel to greet family and friends had a look of heartbreak on their face.

They had just watched the Baby Blacks lift the Rugby Championship’s gigantic trophy. It hurt them but if could also be the catalyst for future success as the team look to “get better quick” ahead of the U20 Championship from the end of next month.

“The (Wallabies’) World Cup was tough for us as a country and as a junior coming through the system it’s obviously tough to watch that unfold and the way it went down,” MacPherson told RugbyPass at Sunshine Coast Stadium.

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“I don’t think that reflects on our age group at all and I think we showed that when we do get it right we can execute some really good footy and I think that’s a really big bonus.

“Going into the World Cup off the back of last year, we’re hungry and the boys really want to push up into that top four.

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“Me as a captain I have all the belief in the world that we could win the title over there and we absolutely can.

“The boys have got to be better, I’ve got to be better as a captain – we’ve all got to get better and we’ve got to get better quick. That’s the ultimate goal.

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“As Australian rugby, I think we need to hold these couple of age groups together and really focus on developing us.

“I’m excited by the players that we have, we’ve got good talent, and I think so are they.

“The performances and the improvement over the last three games that this tournament has enabled us to do, I think there’s some exciting passage of play.

“I’m really excited going into the World Cup and optimistic that we can do really well.”

MacPherson mentioned the Junior Wallabies’ lack of execution multiple times during that four-minute interview. Point scoring opportunities and potentially even the match were there for the taking but the Aussies failed where the Kiwis thrived.

New Zealand made the most of some half-opportunities to strike, including Stanley Solomon’s second try late in the first half. The winger leapt up to intercept a lofted pass before beating his opponent’s with sheer pace to the house.

Fullback Angus Staniforth looked to hit back for the Junor Wallabies only a couple of minutes later but was bundled into touch with the try line practically within reach. So, New Zealand went into the break with the lead.

While Australia managed to regain the later on courtesy of a Will McCulloch double, the Baby Blacks rallied in clutch moments. First five Rico Simpson was sent to the sin bin late but that only seemed to spur the 14-man Kiwi side on.

The Junior Wallabies may be left to wonder what could’ve been.

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“Proud of the boys’ effort but disappointed. We created a lot of opportunities out there and we just didn’t get that last pass or we just didn’t get that final little bit of execution to finish it,” MacPherson said.

“We created enough opportunities to lift that trophy and going into South Africa that’s going to be our work on, is being able to ice those little touches when you make a line break.

“Proud of the boys. Obviously (I’m a) bit disappointed. No one wanted to see them lift the trophy.

“I had confidence in the boys at all points of the game and I think so did they but we just fell short and didn’t quite execute our A-zone.

“I think you can see our progression throughout this tournament has been massive,” he added.

“Round one we had a bit of a shocker and we all admitted that, round two we showed a really gutsy effort, and then this round we created a lot of opportunities but as I said, we just didn’t finish it.

“Going into the World Cup we’re positive and we believe but we’ve got a lot of learning to do and that’s a part of footy and I think all the boys are up for that.”

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Carmen Beechum 6 minutes ago
Mick Cleary: 'England are back among the heavyweights.'

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JW 26 minutes ago
Five reasons why Super Rugby Pacific is enjoying it's best season in forever

The Mickey Mouse playoff system that made the entire regular season redundant

The playoff system has never been redundant Ben, it was merely important to fewer teams, just those vying for top seed. After that it was simply about qualifying.


The format is arguably worse now. I can see the Canes slumping to a point were the return of key components, like their starting midfield, is now going to happen too late for them due to the reduced playoff spots. So we don’t get the perfect jeopardy like what we got with the Crusaders last year, were deservedly (despite showing they easily had a top 4 team when fit) they missed out because they were even more pathetic than that early team deserved. A couple more bonus points with some better leadership, on and off field, would have given the Crusaders a deserving. As reported last year have we not seen a more perfect finals run in.


Objectively easier finals qualification is better suited to shorter competitions, and we know SR is the “sprint” version amongst it’s rugby equivalents. The Top 14 is probably the worst competition in this respect, with it’s length with a double round robin should have a football styled champion. The Premiership, with it’s smaller base but also double round robin, was pretty much perfectly suited to it’s smaller 4 team playoff. Super Rugby, with it’s much shorter season (smaller amount of games, and most importantly over a much shorter period, would be able suited to a 6 team play off series if it had a comparative round robin. It doesn’t. Playing a bunch of random extra games, within your own division, requires you to expand the qualification reach. Super Rugby was another perfectly balanced competition.


If you want to look subjectively, sure, there are a lot of cool facets of tighter qualification, they just aren’t sensible applicable to SR so you have to be a realist.


I’m pretty sure you yourself have authored articles showing you need to be in the top four come finals time to win Super Rugby.

Competition parity this year just seems to be part luck, but we’ll take it.

The closer parity is simply more about circumstance, I agree. The Lions tour has just as much to do with the consistency and early standards in Australian players performances, and random factors balancing the NZ sides. The predictable improvement of the “Pacific Powers” another key factor, but with the case of extra support like NZR help raise their profile, as in the “Ardie” factor, possibly able to happen a year sooner than it has.


Still, as I have highlighted on previous articles, I wouldn’t be surprised if these results were nearly as predictable as they were last year, and that it was just the fixture ‘creation’ by new management that has artificially created a bit more hype and unrealistic perception on the competitions ‘parity’, in these early stages.

Super Rugby Pacific has done the right thing and got rid of most TMO interventions that have plagued the game over the last few years and impacted one World Cup final.

I wouldn’t have minded if they just put their own spin on WR’s structure. While you don’t go on to describe what the two situations are that remain, one that I think could still have been of value keeping is for the ability for the TMO to rule live.


The fact that several of the WC’s TMO officials were overly zealous in their ability to over rule the onfield decision does not mean there wouldn’t have been value in a good southern hemisphere run contingent from simply adding value and support to the game ref. Take the case last weekend as the perfect example. While I don’t believe it would have been of any real benefit for the Highlanders to have had advantage at the death (the same sequence would have still played out), looking in isolation one can clearly tell that was a live situation where the ref said he was obstructed from making a call, and if the current rules would have allowed, the TMO, like us on TV, could easily have told him to play advantage for the infringement. In another situation that type of officiating could have made all the difference to the quality and accuracy of the outcome. Views of the comp would be a lot different if it was clearly as case that the Highlanders were robbed of a deserved victory.


All told, the game is obviously much better off for what changes have been made with officiating, though this is not really isolated to SR. SR is just the only comp to have start with these.

If you want back in, put your hands up for some real competition, don’t ask for handouts. No conference systems.

We are currently in a conference system Ben, I’m afraid you’re beating the wrong drum there and you own subjective (and flawed) opinions are coming through quite clearly. As spitballed on the article a few days ago, it’s hard to see a true league table where it is either a full round robin or double round robin happen, there is still going to be some amount of divisional derby matchs going on to fill out the season.


Conferences are also the only way forward, so get on board. I would love for SARU to be able to add a couple of regional sides in Super Rugby, using the countries burgeoning playerbase. It might be far easier, and more advantageous, for SA to add to SR than say try to enlarge the URC, or go it on their own with a professional scene. They could leave their clubs to themselves and take control of running a highveld team out of Cheetahs country, and a lowveld team wherever they would like a new attempt at a ‘Kings’ team. I can’t see the clubs ever rejoining SR.


Not surprised the article is well off the mark Ben.


One thing they could do to further improve the ‘jeopardy’ though is to have a separate world club table where each seasons finalists are awarding ranking points going towards selecting who takes part in the biennial (right?) world champs the Champions Cup is hosting in the future. I’d normally expect the government to simply send whoever the most recent finalists are but I reckon creating a way to have those instead be judged by contribution since the last edition (however frequent this idea might turn out) could be a winner this new management will work out and capitalize on. It would also help add to that jeopardy if say ranking points were only allocated to the top 6 of an 8 team finals format.

1 Go to comments
C
Carmen Beechum 1 hour ago
Jettisoning your best attacking player makes no sense – Andy Goode

(Telegram: https:// t. me/Pro_ Wizard_ Gilbert_ Recovery)Email (pro wizard gilbert recovery (@) engineer. com)I never imagined I would fall victim to a cryptocurrency scam, but that's exactly what happened. My name is [Carmen Beechum, and I invested $500,000 into what | believed was a legitimate trading platform. Everything appeared professional-the website was well-designed, customer service was responsive, and my trading account even showed promising returns.It all seemed too good to be false.However, when I attempted to withdraw my funds, I was met with endless delays and excuses. First, they claimed there were technical issues, then they needed additional verification, and finally, they requested a release fee before processing my withdrawal. Despite complying with their demands, my account was eventually frozen, and all communication from the platform ceased. That's when reality hit me—l had been scammed out of half a million dollars. Desperate to find a way to recover my money, I searched online for solutions. That's when I came across PRO WIZARD GIlBERT RECOVERY, a company dedicated to helping victims of online financial fraud. At first, I was skeptical-after all, I had already been deceived once, and the last thing I wanted was to fall for another scam. But after speaking with their team and reviewing their success stories, I decided to take a chance.Their experts immediately got to work, using advanced blockchain forensics and investigative tools to trace my stolen funds. WhatsApp: +1 (920) 408‑1234They identified the fraudulent wallets where my money had been transferred and collaborated with financial institutions and law enforcement agencies to take action. Thanks to their persistence and expertise, they were able to freeze the scammers' accounts and successfully recover my $500,000. What seemed like a devastating loss turned into a remarkable recovery. I am incredibly grateful to PRO WIZARD GIlBERT RECOVERY for not only retrieving my funds but also restoring my peace of mind. My experience serves as a warning to others-always be cautious with online investments, but if you ever become a victim, know that recovery is possible with the right experts on your side.

26 Go to comments
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