Junior World Championship

Pool A New Zealand, Fiji, Wales, Samoa

Pool B England, South Africa, Ireland, Italy

Pool C Australia, France, Argentina, Scotland

This year's championship, the fifth at under-20 level, has been stretched by two days after concerns were raised last year about the tight schedule impacting on player welfare.

The new timetable, however, is unchanged for the pool matches for which there are three days between games but in the knock-out stages the recovery time has been extended to four days.

Last year rumours were rife that Ireland had threatened to pull out of the tournament for reasons of player welfare. These were unconfirmed but it appears that the threats have been heeded.

From the Hootsman:

Young Scots are handed tough opening fixtures

by Alan Lorimer

Scotland will kick-off the 2012 Under-20 World Championship in South Africa against the Pool C top seeds, Australia, at the University of the Western Cape stadium on Monday, June 4 and four days later face France at the same venue.

The Scots, who are seeded fourth in their group after finishing 10th in last year's championship in Italy, will complete their pool matches on Tuesday, June 12 against Argentina before playing in the knock-out stages over the final two rounds on June 17 and 22.

On current form, Scotland will do well to avoid being in the third group of four countries competing for the 9th-12th finishing places. The bottom (12th placed) side in the championship will be relegated to the second tier competition for the 2013 championship.

Is it me? or do New Zealand seem to have an easy pool?

That's the benefit of being top seeds. What about England? I presume they're 2nd seeds and they get South Africa AND Ireland. Still, if you want to win it you need to be able to beat every one (even the Baby Blacks unfortunately).

Pool B is definitely the group of death with England, SA and Ireland who are the best f the Celtic teams at present. Really tough ask as the saffers like the English are always huge.

Great! We always get stuck with NZ. I just pray for no more 90 - 0 hammerings. Then Fiji and Samoa.....

I think we better take a squad of about 60 players to cover injuries!!!

We could send George North over - He'd probably be up for it

Ruby if Wales feel they have to throw full Internationals in to give them a fighting chance, so be it

You concentrate on that Twickenham game Secret - I'm sure your boys will only be too glad to give us a helping hand.

Really hope Ireland don't take Paddy Jackson to this one. He would be far better off in pre-season at Ulster and would then have a realistic chance of first team rugby next season.

From a purely Irish perspective to make this tournament worthwhile, Ireland should be introducing new players to be ready for next year's 6N.

Is there to be a compulsory player rotation rule this year? Or was that the U18's that had that?

NZ, Fiji and Samoa? OUCH!

Tough, tough group that. And NZ absolutely thrashed us last time

Portnoy wrote:Is there to be a compulsory player rotation rule this year? Or was that the U18's that had that?

Yes, Portnoy, same as last year's JWC - all squad members must play or something similar

Schedule -

Pool A
04 Jun, 14:45 - Wales v Fiji - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch
04 Jun, 16:45 - New Zealand v Samoa - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

08 Jun, 14:45 - Fiji v Samoa - UWC Stadium, Cape Town
08 Jun, 16:45 - New Zealand v Wales - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

12 Jun, 16:45 - Wales v Samoa - UWC Stadium, Cape Town
12 Jun, 18:45 - New Zealand v Fij - UWC Stadium, Cape Town

Pool B
04 Jun, 16:45 - England v Italy - UWC Stadium, Cape Town
04 Jun, 18:45 - South Africa v Ireland -Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

08 Jun, 18:45 - South Africa v Italy -UWC Stadium, Cape Town
08 Jun, 18:45 - England v Ireland - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

12 Jun, 14:45 - Ireland v Italy -Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch
12 Jun, 18:45 - South Africa v England -Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

Pool C
04 Jun, 14:45 - Australia v Scotland - UWC Stadium, Cape Town
04 Jun, 18:45 - France v Argentina - UWC Stadium, Cape Town

08 Jun, 14:45 - Australia v Argentina - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch
08 Jun, 16:45 - France v Scotland - UWC Stadium, Cape Town

12 Jun, 14:45 - Argentina v Scotland - UWC Stadium, Cape Town
12 Jun, 16:45 - France v Australia - Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch

PLAY - OFF SEMI-FINALS - 17th JUNE

PLAY-OFF FINALS - 22nd JUNE

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Portnoy wrote:Is there to be a compulsory player rotation rule this year? Or was that the U18's that had that?

Yes, Portnoy, same as last year's JWC - all squad members must play or something similar

Would that not be a pretty progressive rule to enter into senior tournaments/Championships? It would mean squad guys knowing they would get a chance to prove themselves, make the more usual suspects more ready to constantly prove their merit and add some mystery to when coaches choose to play their weaker hands.

Then again, they could just throw on a bunch of subs in the last few seconds and accomplish their committments that way without really going along with the spirit of the prospective ruling. So - not sure how workable it is in guaranteeing significant game time

SecretFly wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Portnoy wrote:Is there to be a compulsory player rotation rule this year? Or was that the U18's that had that?

Yes, Portnoy, same as last year's JWC - all squad members must play or something similar

Would that not be a pretty progressive rule to enter into senior tournaments/Championships? It would mean squad guys knowing they would get a chance to prove themselves, make the more usual suspects more ready to constantly prove their merit and add some mystery to when coaches choose to play their weaker hands.

Then again, they could just throw on a bunch of subs in the last few seconds and accomplish their committments that way without really going along with the spirit of the prospective ruling. So - not sure how workable it is in guaranteeing significant game time

God no,it'd mean the bigger teams with the better squads would have an even bigger advantage,less upsets and boring tournaments.

Or the smaller teams could catch the bigger teams when they're playing their fringe players and get a win.

Could be interesting to see how it pans out.

How about enforcing it for the AI's?

Currently this is a terrible rule in the JWC never mind extending it to senior games.

It suits the countries with big playing pools, so just increases the likelihood of hammerings when teams are forced to select their weaker players. It also devalues individual games as the country that wins the championship isn't the best team but rather the best squad.

Ireland really should have stuck to their decision last year and stayed away, as this competition not only harms their player development but also they have to pay for the privilege!

majesticimperialman wrote:Is it me? or do New Zealand seem to have an easy pool?

Yeah, and you could say NZ have an easy group every year because they are so much better than everyone else. Home advantage might just give SA the advantage this year though, who knows.

We had that group 2 years ago I think; beat Fiji and Samoa with relative ease (going by the scores) and lost to NZ 45 - 10 or something. This year we have a worse team than the past two years so we'll need to bring in the players we have left out of the 6 Nations just to not concede another 90 points.

Impossible Standards wrote:Great! We always get stuck with NZ. I just pray for no more 90 - 0 hammerings. Then Fiji and Samoa.....

I think we better take a squad of about 60 players to cover injuries!!!

To be honest I think the more your players play the Kiwi's at rugby at all levels the better. It can only raise your own standards to compete with them. They're the masters. Australia are lucky they get to play them at all underage levels. At senior level, they do know New Zealand are brilliant and they'll probably lose most meetings. But through familiarity they're also aware that they're only 15 humans, and if you play well enough on any given day you can beat them. I feel that the European sides are to in awe of the All Blacks to their detriment.

I love this tournament, it's a tough group for England. A slight disadvantage in playing Italy first if that's the game we choose to rotate in, because then our first team will have to play 4 games in a row, but that's the way it goes.

I think France might end up with the best second place and a semi-final against New Zealand. My other prediction would be Australia against South Africa.

Are all the games being played at low altitude?

Portnoy, yes, all the pool games appear to either be in Cape Town or Stellenbosch