Dylan Pledger made such an impression at King’s High School in Dunedin that former Otago outside back and Sports Director Glenn Dickson declared Pledger, “the most impressive” athlete from the school he’s seen.
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.
The Baby Blacks had defeated France in a pool match in Stellenbosch 10 days earlier, Rico Simpson kicking an 80th-minute penalty to dramatically win that classic 27-26. However, the exchanges were very different at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
The Baby Blacks came into the fixture at the Cape Town Stadium having beaten the French 27-26 just 10 days earlier in a pool match in Stellenbosch.
Beaten 26-27 by an 80th-minute Baby Blacks penalty in a July 4 pool match in Stellenbosch, the French only reached the last four as the tournament’s best runner-up across the three pools courtesy of last Tuesday’s victory over Wales.
It was last Tuesday following match day three when the appetising semi-final line-up was confirmed, pitting Rugby Championship champions New Zealand against defending World Rugby champions France just 10 days after they served up a July 4 thriller in Stellenbosch while Six Nations champions England will go head-to-head with runners-up Ireland 18 weeks after they conjured a compelling 32-all classic at Bath.
The Baby Blacks place-kicker had his frustrations during his team’s ding-dong match with France, the defending champions.
In 2023 Rico Simpson was a dominant figure in the New Zealand Secondary Schools 34-3 and 57-36 successes over Australia. Across the two matches in Canberra, he kicked ten conversations and three penalties.
Gloucester scrum-half Joe Simpson scored two tries against his former club as Wasps continued their poor start to the new Gallagher Premiership season.