2016 World Rugby U20 Championship - Tournament Thread

[George Carlin]

First topic message reminder :

Can't see a tournament thread, so here we go.

The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship will be the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams.

The event is being organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. A total of 12 nations will play in the tournament, which will be held at two venues in Greater Manchester—AJ Bell Stadium in Salford and Manchester City Academy Stadium in Manchester.

New Zealand will go into the tournament as defending champions.

Pool A: New Zealand, Wales, Ireland, Georgia

Match 5: 7 June 2016 Wales 25 - 26 Ireland
Match 3: 7 June 2016 New Zealand 55 - 0 Georgia
Match 10: 11 June 2016 New Zealand 24 - 33 Ireland
Match 11: 11 June 2016 Wales 10 - 9 Georgia
Match 17: 15 June 2016 Ireland v Georgia
Match 14: 15 June 2016 New Zealand v Wales

Pool B: England, Australia, Scotland, Italy

Match 2: 7 June 2016 Australia 10 - 15 Scotland
Match 6: 7 June 2016 England 48 - 10 Italy
Match 7: 11 June 2016 Australia 38 - 10 Italy
Match 12: 11 June 2016 England 44 - 0 Scotland
Match 16: 15 June 2016 Scotland v Italy
Match 15: 15 June 2016 England v Australia

Pool C: South Africa, France, Argentina, Japan

Match 1: 7 June 2016 France 15 - 24 Argentina
Match 4: 7 June 2016 South Africa 59 - 19 Japan
Match 8: 11 June 2016 France 46 - 14 Japan
Match 9: 11 June 2016 South Africa 13 - 19 Argentina
Match 13: 15 June 2016 Argentina v Japan
Match 18: 15 June 2016 South Africa v France

Good luck, everyone.

[The Great Aukster]

Gentlemen,
Please, before the discussion continues further into the night, I would request you refer to Mallinder as Prince Harry (future England and Lions captain).  I understand, if in the interest of time, you omit the part in the parenthesis.  But an honourific is still an hoonourific.

Surely the honourific should be future England captain and Lion (or FECAL for short)?

[DaveM]

He's a competent playmaker and he has a nice range of kicks in the locker but at ni point does he really look a natural at 10. To me he always looked like a centre that was standing in at first receiver. He doesn't challenge the defence on the gain line, his passing is good but limited and in Williams he had a gift of a 12 that mopped up and awful lot and dominated ball in hand, he's unlikely to have that luxury at senior level.

Go back and look at Ford in the final vs NZ from a few years back, that awareness of space and skill ball in hand is so obvious even with a team not as dominant. He always looked the general, Mallinder doesn't.  At 12  Mallinder can have a bigger impact his long passing game moving the ball wide swiftly and his range of kicks a handy second option, also at 12 he can get more use from his impressive running game.

I was watching a man running the game beautifully. Again, he got MoM in one of the great u20 performances, I'm not sure it is reasonable to ask for much more. He looks incredibly comfortable on the gain line to me, with a fantastic understanding of space. I'd brought the line he was definitely a 12, but having watched him play FH he looked a natural 10 to me (one who stands good comparison with Ford from 2011).

England have a perceived weakness at 12, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Mallinder playing 10 to Burrell's 12 for Saints a few times next season, and then we'll see how he goes. If he gets called up into senior squad early it will be as a 12, but with a talent like Mallinder I think you may well want him to have hands on the ball as much as possible.

[Sgt_Pooly]

Agree with Sam, he's not a natural 10 and certainly won't end up playing there. Watch him closely and you can tell he just doesn't have that speed of thought that good 10's do. He's also way to big....

[LondonTiger]

Gentlemen,
Please, before the discussion continues further into the night, I would request you refer to Mallinder as Prince Harry (future England and Lions captain).  I understand, if in the interest of time, you omit the part in the parenthesis.  But an honourific is still an hoonourific.

Surely the honourific should be future England captain and Lion (or FECAL for short)?

Ah no, because he will be captain of the Lions too.

However Prince Harry, Future England & Lions Captain is far too long an honorific and the acronym is clumsy. How about Future England & Lions Captain, Harry

[WELL-PAST-IT]

I prefer Prince Harry Future Lions and England Captain .............PH FLEC

[LondonTiger]

I prefer  Prince Harry Future Lions and England Captain .............PH   FLEC

Could be taken as mocking people with a stutter.

[LondonTiger]

It will be interesting to see just how well the guys in England's winning team progress. Looking at the firsat england team to win the competition:

J

ack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs); Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby), Harry Sloan (Harlequins), Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs), Ben Howard (Worcester Warriors); Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Alex Day (Northampton Saints); Alec Hepburn (London Wasps), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons); Tom Price (Leicester Tigers), Dominic Barrow (Leeds Carnegie), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby), Matt Hankin (Saracens), Jack Clifford (Harlequins) (capt).

Replacements: Scott Spurling (Saracens), Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Northampton Saints), Tom Smallbone (London Irish), Harry Wells (Leicester Tigers), David Sisi (Bath Rugby), Callum Braley (Bristol Rugby), Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby), Henry Purdy (Leicester Tigers).

I think I see 7 players who have been capped in a full international, which is excellent - but other than that most of the players have struggled. Many have since changed clubs, some more than once, and really outside the capped players only Barrow was first choice at his club last season.

[yappysnap]

How many have left the game or transferred down to championship level clubs or lower? It seems like there's always a few who have the potential when young but can never kick on, unfortunately.

[Sgt_Pooly]

Looking through the U20's since it started the success rate increase is pretty impressive. Before there was the odd few, Ben Youngs etc. Now it seems that a third to half of the team are getting recognised.

Itoje's group has had a number. Hill, Genge, Itoje, Clifford, LCD?

[doctor_grey]

I prefer  Prince Harry Future Lions and England Captain .............PH   FLEC

Could be taken as mocking people with a stutter.

I thought I was nuts. You guys have raised the bar.......

[LondonTiger]

Looking through the U20's since it started the success rate increase is pretty impressive. Before there was the odd few, Ben Youngs etc. Now it seems that a third to half of the team are getting recognised.

Itoje's group has had a number. Hill, Genge, Itoje, Clifford, LCD?

ClifforD (captain) and LCD were in 2013 team, Genge in 2014.

Itoje's 2014 team had the likes of Tompkins and Hepburn who went with the saxons this summer, but not yest first team choices at their clubs. Hill and Moriarty (also in 2013 team) were the players who along with Itoje have been capped since.

2008 final team :

England: Noah Cato (Saracens); Mark Odejobi (London Wasps), Luke Eves (Bristol Rugby), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors), Alex Goode (Saracens), Joe Simpson (London Wasps); Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby), Joe Gray (Northampton Saints), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Ben Thomas (Saracens), Gregor Gillanders (Leicester Tigers), Jon Fisher (London Irish), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie), Hugo Ellis (London Wasps, captain). Replacements: Scott Freer (Leeds Carnegie), Billy Moss (Bath Rugby), Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates), Matthew Cox (Worcester Warriors), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons), Seb Stegmann (Harlequins).

2009 Final Team:

England: Tom Homer (London Irish), George Lowe (Harlequins), Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby), Luke Eves (Bristol), Charlie Sharples (Gloucester), Rory Clegg (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs), Jamie George (Saracens), Bob Baker (London Wasps), Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), James Gaskell (Sale Sharks), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie, capt), Carl Fearns (Sale Sharks) Replacements: James Clark (London Irish), Shaun Knight (Gloucester), Dan Williams (Gloucester), Josh Ovens (Bath), Dave Lewis (Gloucester), Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons), Jack Cobden (Leicester Tigers) .

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