England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
Both teams were soundly beaten in the semi-finals, New Zealand swatted aside 55-31 by French flair while Ireland were depowered 31-20 by a physical England who especially bullied their scrum.
New Zealand U20 opener their U20 Championship campaign against Wales U20 on Sunday morning (NZST).
The Spanish have the honour of opening the pool the DHL Stadium this Saturday, taking on a French team that didn’t fire on all cylinders in a Six Nations campaign that only merited third place.
Blues U20 captain Tristyn Cook thought he'd missed out on higher honours before getting a surprise phone call on a Sunday.
In 2016 Taulagi was playing for Brisbane State High in union when former North Queensland recruitment chief Clint Zammit was watching.
A club rugby side has been banned from a sevens tournament for the next three years after a brawl sent an opponent to hospital in scenes described as the most disgusting thing I have never witnessed on a rugby field.
When tasked with writing about “The State of Australian Rugby” and asked to take a “light-hearted angle”, I wondered how in the hell I could find the funny side of what is a truly serious issue.