Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Live blog: Junior World Championship in South Africa – day three

South Africa celebrate a try for Corne Beets (Photo by World Rugby via Getty Images)

It’s day three at what has so far proven to be a thrilling 2023 Junior World Championship in South Africa. The dozen U20s teams at the tournament have royally entertained and the expectation is that rugby fans will again revel in the latest six matches that are set to be played across two venues.

ADVERTISEMENT

The original schedule was for Paarl and Athlone to each stage three matches on Tuesday. However, the epic muddy, rain-sodden round two drama of last Thursday has resulted in the damaged pitch at Paarl getting rested and Stellenbosch being sprung back into action.

Danie Craven Stadium is where the round three programme will now begin, Italy taking on Georgia at 11am local time with both countries knowing they are still in with an excellent chance of making the semi-finals from Pool C following their respective brilliant victories over South Africa and Argentina, the teams who will conclude Tuesday’s schedule with a 7pm clash in Athlone.

Video Spacer

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

Video Spacer

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

In between, the grieving Ireland will tackle Fiji at 1:30pm in Stellenbosch, with their table-topping Pool B rivals England in action versus Australia from 2pm in Athlone.

Richie Murphy’s Irish squad learned on Monday afternoon that Greig Olivier, the father of scrum-half Jack, was tragically killed in a paragliding accident in Cape Town.

Related

Meanwhile, the Pool A details are New Zealand versus Japan at 4pm in Stellenbosch followed by table toppers France against Wales at 4:30pm in Athlone. As it stands, pool leaders France (10 points), England (eight points) and Argentina (five points) occupy the semi-final qualification positions, with Ireland (eight points) currently the best runner-up.

However, there is no guarantee that France versus Ireland and England versus Argentina will ultimately be next Sunday’s semi-final line-up, such is the quality and the competitiveness of this fantastic tournament.

ADVERTISEMENT

In other words, buckle up and brace yourself for a fabulous day of age-grade rugby on the RugbyPass live blog:


ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

3 Comments
S
Shah 507 days ago

Very unfortunate for Georgia. Head-to-head should come into it ONLY if the teams cannot be separated by points and goal difference. This is an injustice.

I
Ian 507 days ago

I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with England's back play that had looked so slick against Ireland. Now for France and the hope that the English forwards can stop Posolo!

R
Roy 507 days ago

The Aussies were superb, truly. England's defense and physicality kept them in the game, but the amount of phases the Aussies went through at times, their persistence, and their tenacity. I applaud you Aussies, I'd say a draw seems a fair result but the type of rugby you played was outstanding.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

H
Hellhound 21 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.

1 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING The Springboks have something you don't have The Springboks have something you don't have
Search