A new schools rugby tournament is set to dominate the headlines this December as Grey College host the Global School's Challenge.
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.
England U20s may have won the ultimate prize but Ireland's young conveyor belt of talent shows no sign of grinding to a halt
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.
Defeat when a team hasn’t performed fully is the worst kind of loss. That was the ordeal Ireland were put through in Cape Town on Sunday, oscillating from a highly competitive first-half effort in a World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final that finished with them only trailing England 22-20 to not firing a single shot in a second period where they were held scoreless and drably lost 31-20.
Two points up at the break, Mark Mapletoft’s side took a firm grip on the previously frenetic exchanges and the second period became a slow death for the Irish.
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.
They also confirmed that skipper Evan O’Connell, the nephew of Paul O'Connell who last took the field in the July 4 pool win over Georgia, has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament through injury.
The teams were set to kick-off at 2pm local time in a match to decide who would finish top of Pool B and advance to next Sunday’s semi-finals.
The Irish, who had nine points after two matches, were due to take on Australia, who had six points, on Tuesday in the final round of the group stage at the tournament.