It's semi-finals Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship and following last Tuesday’s weather-affected schedule, the hope will be that all six matches will be played to an 80-minute conclusion unlike on match day three when there were just four and a half matches completed due to the heavy rain making pitches unplayable.
Knowing they effectively had a ‘gimme’ versus minnows Spain on match day three, they rested numerous first-choice players but they will now run out at the DHL Stadium with a team that has 10 alterations from last Tuesday in Stellenbosch.
Three matches are scheduled for Athlone: Ireland-Australia (2pm local time), France-Wales (4:30pm) and South Africa-England (7pm). Over in Stellenbosch, it’s Argentina-Fiji (2pm), Georgia-Italy (4:30pm) and New Zealand-Spain (7pm).
The Baby Blacks place-kicker had his frustrations during his team’s ding-dong match with France, the defending champions.
The Baby Blacks trailed 0-11 at the break following an opening period where they were heavily penalised on the penalty count, culminating in a yellow card for Andrew Smith.
Three matches are scheduled for Stellenbosch: Ireland vs Georgia (kick-off 2pm local), France vs New Zealand (4:30pm) and South Africa vs Argentina (7pm). Over in Athlone, Wales vs Spain is the opening match (2pm) followed by England vs Fiji (4:30pm) and Australia vs Italy (7pm).
The Kiwis got the show on the road with a 41-34 Pool A win over Wales at Athlone and they have now changed three forwards and two backs for their eagerly anticipated clash with the French.
After a dramatic South Africa victory in the opening game of round three, it came down to Australia and New Zealand in what was essentially a final for The Rugby Championship U20's inaugural title.
Head coach Jono Gibbes has made seven changes to the New Zealand U20 squad that defeated Argentina on Tuesday.
Blues U20 captain Tristyn Cook thought he'd missed out on higher honours before getting a surprise phone call on a Sunday.