The World Rugby U20 Championship has a proven pedigree as a breeding ground for Test stars of the future, with close to 1,000 players using the competition as a stepping stone to higher honours since the first tournament was held in 2008.
Ahead by a single point at the break after riding their luck at times during an edgy opening half, Mark Mapletoft’s dynamos took ample advantage of the yellow carding of Mathis Castro-Ferreira.
Four times he has flown south from France in the last 13 months, his involvement at the 2023 and 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship sandwiching the trips he made in December and April with La Rochelle in the Champions Cup.
France, of course, had their dominance in this grade interrupted by the pandemic after their two-in-a-row of 2018 and 2019, but they ensured their methods of producing quality, title-winning players at this level didn’t fall into rack and ruin during the lay-off.
The French, who are chasing a fourth successive world title in a row, swatted aside New Zealand 55-31 in their semi-final last Sunday.
Silverware is up for grabs in Edinburgh and Cape Town this week as the World Rugby U20 Championship and Trophy reach their conclusion.
France versus New Zealand was a spicy rematch last Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship. The French, the defending three-in-a-row champions from 2018, 2019 and 2023, hadn’t liked it one bit that they were pipped by the Baby Blacks in a pool game 10 days earlier in Stellenbosch.
Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town began with a blue sky, quite the contrast to match day there’s brutal weather, and it stayed dry, encouraging teams to give it a lash.
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.