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Thu 31 May 2018 | 11:53
CATCHUP: Twists and turns on opening day of U20 World Championship

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The 2018 U20 World Championship kicked off in France on Wednesday evening, with six matches taking place and defending champions New Zealand racking up the highest score of the day. There were also one or two upsets. Catch up on all the highlights below.

New Zealand kicked off the defence of their World Rugby U20 Championship title with a ruthless 67-0 defeat of Japan on a day of twists and turns in France on Wednesday.

The 2018 edition of the premier age-grade tournament is predicted to be the most competitive yet and the opening day lived up to that expectation with four matches decided by less than seven points.

South Africa were forced to dig deep to edge past an impressive Georgia 33-27 before hosts France came from 12 points down to beat Ireland 26-24 in the other Pool C match in Perpignan.

The two matches in Béziers were equally tight affairs. First Italy capitalised on a late Scotland yellow card to snatch a 27-26 victory thanks to Niccolo Taddia's try at the death, before Wales avenged their 2017 loss to Australia with a 26-21 victory.

England, the 2017 runners-up, had to withstand a strong first-half performance by Argentina in the first match in Narbonne before coming through to win 39-18.

The action continues on Sunday with the second round of pool matches.

New Zealand will tackle Wales before France face Georgia in Béziers, while Australia meet Japan and South Africa go head to head with Ireland in Narbonne. The four Pool B teams are in Perpignan with England facing Italy and Scotland taking on Argentina.

Highlights below and you can watch the full match replays here (geo-blocked in some territories)

South Africa U20 v Georgia U20

Scotland U20 v Italy U20

England U20 v Argentina U20

France U20 v Ireland U20

Australia U20 v Wales U20

New Zealand U20 v Japan U20

credit: world rugby

Posted By: Grant Constable

5 Comments

  • finedisregard
    5:50 PM 01/06/2018

    This is neat, thanks for posting!

  • drg
    5:08 PM 31/05/2018

    EXACTLY my take from that still... Another Japanese player getting kneed by "high knees"... Surprised it wasn't a card... I guess that kiwi will be banned for 5 weeks + 2 - 3.5 + 1.8 / 28 x 3.82 + ?Pi / Orange... Happy to share that formulae that I discovered after I snuck into a disciplinary hearing one time!

  • pickay
    4:18 PM 31/05/2018

    Naah, should be safe, as ever since Tuilagi got a 5 week ban at RWC 2015 we learned that the ball carrier is not allowed to lift his knees while running...

    http://www.rugbydump.com/2015/10/4653/alesana-tuilagi-banned-for-5-weeks-for-kneeing-japanese-tackler

  • moo
    2:08 PM 31/05/2018

    Some entertaining games. Watched via other page (cheers RD).
    Georgia unlucky - though some very jammy interceptions from both sides - could this signal the start of the breakthrough for them?
    England came through after some injuries and initially being rattled by Argie forward power & no. 8 who looked class - some of the backs need to make better decisions though - possibly flattered by the scoreline?
    Italy snatched a proper nail-biter
    France sneak revenge for Sexton drop-goal in the seniors?
    Wales looking promising (with a few errors sprinkled in) against Aus.
    NZ impressive - but the big 14 needs to remember to hold on to the ball as well as trying to look the part with his attempted stepping - the other winger looks class though (and we all know about Koroi, the FB).

  • im1
    1:38 PM 31/05/2018

    nice still photo at the top.

    tackling too high is dangerous.

    must tackle lower so you can increase the risk of headbutting a knee....

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