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South Africa U20 and England U20 make sweeping changes for third place play-off

Chandler Cunningham-South of England U20 celebrates scoring a try. (Photo by World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

South Africa U20 and England U20 will bring their World Rugby U20 Championships to a close this Friday with wholesale changes to their starting XVs in their third place play-off at Athlone Stadium.

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Following their 31-12 loss to Ireland U20 in the semi-finals, Junior Boks head coach Bafana Nhleko has made eight changes to his starting XV – some forced through injury, some not – with centre Damian Markus set to make his first start of the tournament.

Likewise, England U20 head coach Mark Mapletoft has made changes across the board, bringing in seven new players to his starting XV to the one that lost to France U20 52-31. There has also been a positional tinkering in the back-row, with Harlequins’ Chandler Cunningham-South shifting from No.8 to blindside flanker, forcing Nathan Michelow to move to openside flanker.

Nhleko said: “We said at the start of the tournament that we wanted to give everyone a taste of Test match rugby.

“We did that, but the injuries and the result against Ireland have now given us another opportunity to expand on that, which means we will have some fresh bodies in the squad to face England.”

Mapletoft said: “This is the last opportunity for this group to take to the field together, and I know they can’t wait to give it their all.

“This has been a fantastic learning opportunity for this talented bunch of players, and I’m sure the experience will put them in good stead for the future.

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“Going up against the hosts on Friday will be a challenge, but I have confidence in the players to put in a performance that they can be proud of.”

South Africa U20:
15. Regan Izaks – 3 caps, 0 points
14. Jurenzo Julius – 4 caps, 10 points (2 tries)
13. Katlego Letebele (vice-captain) – 6 caps, 10 points (2 tries)
12. Damian Markus – 4 caps, 5 points (1 try)
11. Quewin Nortje – 1 cap, 0 points
10. Jean Smith – 3 caps, 29 points (7 conversions, 5 penalty goals)
9. Neil le Roux – 5 caps, 0 points
8. Corné Beets – 3 caps, 10 points (2 tries)
7. Hennie Sieberhagen – uncapped
6. Paul de Villiers (captain) – 8 caps, 0 points
5. Tiaan Wessels – 1 cap, 0 points
4. Coetzee le Roux – 3 caps, 5 points (1 try)
3. Mawande Mdanda – 2 caps, 0 points
2. Juann Else – 5 caps, 10 points (2 tries)
1. Phatu Ganyane – 4 caps, 0 points

Replacements:
16. SJ Kotze – 4 caps, 0 points
17. Corné Lavagna – 6 caps, 0 points
18. Zachary Porthen – 4 caps, 0 points
19. Abulele Ndabambi – 3 caps, 0 points
20. Gcinokuhle Mdletshe – 6 caps, 0 points
21. Imad Khan – 7 caps, 16 points (2 tries, 3 conversions)
22. Litelihle Bester – 1 cap, 0 points
23. Michael Annies – 4 caps, 0 points

England U20:
15 Sam Harris (Bath Rugby)
14 Cassius Cleaves (Harlequins)
13 Joe Jenkins (Bristol Bears)
12 Rekeiti Ma’asi-White??(Sale Sharks)
11 Alex Wills (Sale Sharks)
10 Connor Slevin (Harlequins)
9 Nye Thomas?(Sale Sharks)
1 Asher Opoku-Fordjour?(Sale Sharks)
2 Craig Wright?(Northampton Saints)
3 Afolabi Fasogbon (Gloucester Rugby)
4 Joe Bailey?(Exeter) *
5 Lewis Chessum (C) (Leicester Tigers)
6 Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
7 Nathan Michelow (Saracens)
8 Zach Carr?(Harlequins)

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Replacements:
16 Nathan Jibulu?(Harlequins)
17 Ethan Clarke?(Harlequins)
18 James Halliwell (Bristol Bears)
19 Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers)
20 Tristan Woodman (Sale Sharks)
21 Charlie Bracken (Saracens)
22 Louie Johnson (Newcastle)
23 Joseph Woodward?(Leicester Tigers)

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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