17 days until JWC
In just seventeen days, the home to Newport RFC and Newport Gwent Dragons, will host Pool C in the IRB Junior World Championship.
Pool C comprises U20 teams from Australia, England, Fiji and Canada pitting two age grade sides from the countries involved in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final against one another in the race for the top spot.
Junior World Championship: Pool C Preview
Australia U20 are the top seeds for Pool C; third ranked seeds overall for the IRB Junior World Championship after Australia U19 narrowly defeated Wales U19 to finish third in last season’s IRB U19 World Championship. Australia U19 blazed a trail through last season’s tournament picking up three wins out of three in the pool stages before being cut short by the superiority of South Africa in the semi-finals.
The young Wallabies kick off Pool C on the 6th June at 5pm against Canada U20, with Fiji U20 following on the 10th June. Barring a disastrous collapse Australia U20 will face England U20 in a potential pool decider on 14th June. At senior level the rivalry between the two nations has provided some of the most mouthwatering clashes in rugby, and never more so than in the Rugby World Cup where England currently lead Australia by three matches to two.
Rodney Parade should feel familiar to England U20, as the 2008 U20 Grand Slam Champions took a point from Wales U20 on the final day of last season’s U21 Six Nations with a late rally into Welsh territory by Tom Youngs.
England U20 are sixth seeds overall in the IRB Junior World Championship after England U19’s performance last season and second seeds in Pool C. England U19 were defeated by France U19 on the final day of the 2007 IR U19 World Championship.
Head Coach Nigel Redman took England U19 to two FIRA World Championships in 2000 and 2001, he was also with the England U21 squad during 2002 and 2003 and returned to duty with England U19 in Dubai in 2006 and Belfast in 2007. At the venue he has referred to as a ‘home from home’, where his nephew, Newport Gwent Dragons and former Wales U20 player, Jamie Corsi, plies his trade, he will be calling on all of his age grade experience as he looks to mastermind wins over Fiji and Canada to set up a winner-takes-all clash with Australia U20 in the final pool match.
England U20 go into the tournament with one championship already secure under their belt this season, having produced a clean sweep of their Six Nations opponents in February and March making them one of the Northern Hemisphere's leading contenders for the title. The squad will contain survivors from last season's U19 team with some players bringing Guinness Premiership experience to the tournament.
The remainder of the squad will consist of players stepping up an age grade from England U18. England U20 will have to raise their game against the Sothern Hemisphere nations where previous age grade contingents have failed. Whilst England U19 coped with Samoa last season their record over the past three seasons against the SANZAR teams was winless. The last age grade clash between England and Austalia came in the 2005 IRB U19 World Championship where England were defeated 21-29 in Durban.
The winner of Pool C faces a semi-final at Cardiff Arms Park with South Africa U20 the likely opponents, although given South Africa U19’s defeat to France U19 in last season’s pool stages, it is by no means a foregone conclusion, especially with the might of Samoa U20 lurking to cause an upset in Pool B.
Fiji U20 take the position of third seeds in the pool and are the 11th ranked seed in the tournament overall after Fiji U19 finished in that position in the IRB U19 World Championships last April. Two-thirds of that Fiji U19 squad are likely to front up for Head Coach Rayne Simpson when the IRB Junior World Championship kicks off.
Fiji U20 will prepare for the tournament with a warm-up match against Pool A’s Tonga U20 in May and whilst recent age-grade history suggests that the top two seeds in the pool should have nothing to worry about, the Fijian nation possesses plenty of rugby knowledge and resource which has all the potential to cause an upset.
At senior level, the rugby sevens experts proved the surprise package at the Rugby World Cup in France earlier in the season, eliminating Wales from the pool stages and running the eventual champions, South Africa, close in the quarter-finals.
Although Fiji U19 won only one match in last season’s IRB U19 World Championship, three of those losses were by narrow margins, and Fiji’s latest batch of age grade stars will be looking to emulate the performance of their senior counterparts.
Canada U20 complete Pool C as fourth seeds in the pool and 14th seeds in the tournament overall, behind Italy U20 and ahead of neighbours USA.
Canada U19 finished second in Division B in Belfast last season (the equivalent of 14th place) recording a four match winning streak to the Division B final, where they capitulated to Italy U19 with a 3-22 defeat on the last day of the tournament.
Playing the other three teams will be new ground for the junior Canucks with Fiji U20 their most likely opportunity for victory.
However, Canada U20 will bring considerable international experience to the tournament with several squad members participating in this season’s IRB World Sevens Series and in the form of fly-half, Nathan Hirayama, who captained the U19 team last season before going to Rugby World Cup 2007 as an unused squad member with the senior team which coincidentally faced Australia and Fiji in the pool stages.
Tim Murdy’s side have already produced two victories this season, once over USA U19 and once over USA U20; retaining the Freedom Cup in the latter with a 19-14 victory.
Pool C Fixtures at Rodney Parade
06/06/2008 17:00 Pool C Australia U20s v Canada U20s Rodney Parade
06/06/2008 19:00 Pool C England U20s v Fiji U20s Rodney Parade
10/06/2008 17:00 Pool C England U20s v Canada U20s Rodney Parade
10/06/2008 19:00 Pool C Australia U20s v Fiji U20s Rodney Parade
14/06/2008 15:00 Pool C Fiji U20s v Canada U20s Rodney Parade
14/06/2008 17:00 Pool C Australia U20s v England U20s Rodney Parade
