Chapter 1: Why did New Zealand struggle in the Under 20 Rugby Championship?
Now South Africa has taken out the under-20s tournament in South Africa, a tournament which was interesting because the three other teams appeared to be so close and South Africa appeared to be running away with it. And then in that last game, that New Zealand-South Africa game, 29 all was very, very close.
Whenever New Zealand doesn't win an under-20s tournament, the questions are always being asked, we used to win these no problem at all, why aren't we winning them now? So let's kind of get into what's gone on here. Firstly, this performance after losing to Argentina against South Africa was a big step up.
Having Kane Durie on, it gave me a lot more perspective watching it, like understanding that they're setting themselves up to win a World Cup. New Zealand won this last year convincingly, and the Springboks went on to win the World Cup. I'm not saying that there's just naturally going to be roles reversed. But I think it showed that they used every member of the squad.
They targeted that Argentinian game as to give a lot of opportunity to guys that are trying to stake their claim for the World Cup. And I think that's always a good thing because how do you know where guys are at if they don't get a chance? They slipped up, they didn't deliver, and then they put... I suppose their main side back in, you know, with a few injuries that are missing some key players.
But I was super impressed. One, I think the most impressive was like the Springboks have set the standard in terms of all the collision areas at under 20s.
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Chapter 2: What factors contributed to South Africa's dominance in the tournament?
Struggled at scrum time, I get that. There's no sort of helping that. It's just a mass thing and a timing thing. But I think...
the line out more to get a couple of more tries is massive especially against the spring box like that that is huge and i like the nifty innovation and the speed of that first try um i think you know even when they're under pressure defensively you know there's some bad defensive reads that led to tries but i think in and around the breakdown and getting turnovers at key times finlay was good the young hooker woodley was constantly challenging but
And then just when the game came in the balance, they just piggybacked themselves up the field. They obviously have six players returning. I think the experience down that stretch was really important. And then to lead to the penalty, try to get them the result. I don't know, I think they'll be really happy coming back.
They'll be gutted with a draw, but I think the nature of, South Africa obviously won it as soon as they got the bonus point, but them kicking it out and not going for the win showed, was testament to how physical and how draining that test match was. I think it holds them in really, really good stead.
Having seen every player, they've got some real live footage and stuff that they can use to get growth in between now and the World Cup. And I think they've done a good job.
Now, Bryn, that's the key difference here between the New Zealand approach and the South African approach.
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Chapter 3: How did New Zealand's approach differ from South Africa's preparation?
The South Africans took a tour to Georgia in February. They brought this team together. They created combination. New Zealanders had a camp and a trial match thing against universities. They haven't put the effort into preparing for this tournament the way the South Africans have resources. And you can see it. So the question is, really, should they?
You know, the question is, is it all about this world championship? Should they have been thinking more about winning the rugby championship? Or is the approach fine because it's the trophy at the end of the year that matters?
I think it's the trophy that ends with the Under 20 World Cup Championship.
From where we were, let's say probably into my time when we were there, and this is going back a long time ago, but having a few camps, not having the Rugby Championship and an opportunity to be able to play in a different country and go through what it maybe looks like to be able to play against those kind of teams in Argentina.
south africa and australia we didn't have that back in the day you pretty much go to a rugby world cup playing you know an npc team or a blues development or hurricanes development and then going over to play so i think the the progression of probably a decade ago is really good with having this rugby championship so yeah i think to the points that jip touched on being able to use the whole squad and being able to think of the bigger picture of winning a rugby world cup now look i guess with the all blacks and even at under 20s level with the expectations that we want them to want every single trophy that they're up for grabs and
Even though they didn't have the opportunity when they did score that fourth try at the South Africans, they still had the chance to win. Unfortunately, with Muliaina having the opportunity to be able to win the game with the penalty at the back end of the game, they probably end up winning that game.
So I think with how the structure is and how we've grown in that area to give these men the opportunity to play against international teams before going to a regular World Cup, look, now we'd love to be able to have a Six Nations and something like that to play more games, but Djipa, I think,
the growth of where the competitions are for the under-20 boys now, it's a lot easier to be able to go to a Rugby World Cup and have that kind of rugby championship in between going to a World Cup.
Yeah, look, a lot of them get touch points in the Super Rugby environment over Christmas, New Year's. You know, like they've got to get themselves sorted outside of footy.
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Chapter 4: What role did player selection play in New Zealand's performance?
I just don't know how it was like, oh yeah, he's lost control of it and he was last to touch it, so it's a scrum. Mate, that was clear.
hand down try yes all day long cost us i know i'm going to get ripped in the comments but i have to say that the end on replay had a leg in the way which really made it hard to tell the absolute suit but when you looked at the other angle you could see his hand they from the high angle yes
where you could see his face, you could see his hand got it in before the line, you could see it, it was paused on top of it. Then you go behind, yes, the leg's there, but you can see it gets forced.
The words were no downward pressure, please. So are you saying I can call the title of this video, New Zealand was robbed?
Please don't, because I really don't want to go insane for the week. But like, I don't know. I was even starting to think there wouldn't even be a penalty try at the end there. Yeah. I thought the referee did a really good job in that situation because so often you can see those players trailing. They're never going to stop that try.
But I've seen that being just a yellow card and not a penalty try. So I thought in a big moment, you know, probably helped that they'd already won.
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Chapter 5: How did injuries impact New Zealand's Under 20 squad?
Yeah. But it was a pretty big call. You touched on the scrum. The South Africans went to Georgia. If you're going to go to a place to practice scrummaging as a young fella, I'm imagining that that's the place to go. That's what they love.
But look at their scrum on the national level. They just froth for scrums.
So what are they doing differently from us? Why is this South African system creating a scrum that is so dominant in comparison to the New Zealand system?
Well, talk to me, Bryn. You see Malcolm Mark's training. It's obviously training habits.
yeah there's obviously a mindset around it like it's it's a weapon that they want to be able to do and i think you know talking to malcolm and i guess the the forwards that they have their sessions like it's it's full-on but there's also a technical side to it that they're obviously doing um very very well which is then being able to go into games being able to execute and being able to put teams under pressure let alone the all blacks or whoever it may be so
There is a massive, massive area where they are working on that collectively and so I think even the exercises that they are doing, Malcolm talks around it like obviously they're very, very hard scrum sessions but the technical side and I guess the ability of all the eight to do their job.
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Chapter 6: What were the key tactical differences in scrummaging between the teams?
Now Jipper taps on it and probably knows this in the scrums, I'm not averse to be able to really understand it but to have a very good scrum, all eight are working together and that's a big part that Malcolm's kind of touched on that they all want to be in sync and they're all trying to do their own role in the scrum.
You're seeing that probably at the top level, which has then been filtered down with the under-20s, probably trying to run a similar program to the Springboks and getting information around what that's looking like.
There's so many things that can impact it. But we spoke at length last season around the spring box. And one is obviously that timing, that transition of power. They are all in sync on the engage and they're loaded. And I think just little things they do well. If you watch all their loosies, they almost curl their hands in the grass.
They always bang their boots back to get them locked in their preset. They're not thinking about cleaning that rut. They're not thinking about who's running down their channel. They're backing themselves to scrum first, then they'll get there.
And that sounds simple in theory, but actually having the confidence in your back defenders that if worse comes worse, it's a quick hock and out, they'll survive. But their whole mindset is scrum first, like scrum at all costs first, because they know If they can fold a team back over on their own ball or keep it in and milk a penalty on their ball, it's just such a weapon.
You just piggyback yourself down the field. And then I think their nines. Their nines make a big effort to call when the opposition half is putting in or they're putting in to make sure that they know when the trigger's coming. And they'll train that. They'll just train it all week. So even though you hear it,
You haven't trained it all week, so you hear one of their halfbacks go, or whatever their word is, as they're putting the ball in, you're still reacting to someone else that you haven't trained with all week, and you'll just always be second. But I still think it's those loosies. Those loosies love a scrum like a front rower. It's a big part.
I'll tell you what, they are not looking for anything else other than the penalty at scrum time.
So, Brynner, when you look at the players that you saw on the field, which players stood out to you that you thought, geez, this person's the person for the future?
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Chapter 7: Which players stood out as future stars from the tournament?
I'm not too sure if he is, but I think with his developments and even playing with the MPC, he was very good for the Bay of Plenty steamers coming in last year. So I think he's definitely one guy to watch. And I think Norrie as well in fullback. I think his agility and his weapon on attack with both ball in hand and his kicking ability. And I think with how fast he is, he's probably two players.
Those are probably two players that I've touched on who I think will have a pretty good career as opposed to his under-20s.
I think another one is Caleb Woodley. I really liked him at open side. He was just so solid defensively. He got a good crucial turnover against the Springboks.
Chapter 8: What lessons can New Zealand learn from this Under 20 Championship?
He's got a bright future. And then Muliaina is another one. I think if you look at Muliaina and what he's done, he really played a lot of NBC. And I think his composure going into this World Cup will be crucial.