#8 Akira Ioane NZ U02's 2015

Junior World Cup Italy 2015

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#8 Akira Ioane New Zealand U20’s 2015

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Old rivals ready for titanic battle in U20 final

Will history repeat itself when England and New Zealand meet in the World Rugby U20 Championship 2015 final in Italy?

20/06/2015 21:48 Old rivals ready for titanic battle in U20 final England and New Zealand meeting in a World Rugby U20 Championship final is nothing new, Saturday’s title decider in Cremona will be the fourth time the rivals have met at this stage of the competition with the outcome having been the same each time – a New Zealand victory.

The last of New Zealand’s four titles came in 2011 after a 33-22 victory over England at the Stadio Plebiscito in Padova and captain Atu Moli will be hoping that history repeats itself when the sides meet again on Italian soil to end a long wait for a fifth success.

“Yes, definitely it will be extra motivation,” insisted prop Moli, whose side overwhelmed France 45-7 in the semi-final with some lethal finishing by their backline.

“People talk about pressure but we’ll take that pressure and turn it into a positive.

“It will mean the world to us to get our hands on the trophy as it’s been a few years since we won the championship.

“We have been working towards this since November and now we are finally here. This was the goal to get into the final and win it. We’d like to repay the people who have helped us get here by winning the championship.

“I go to sleep every night dreaming about having the trophy in my hands but I know we have a lot of hard work to do first and we’ll see how it pans out on Saturday.”

For Moli and his teammates, though, it is not just the desire to end that title drought that is driving them on, the culture and passion they have created within the squad and a particular theme is also proving an inspiration.

“It is about making your own legacy in the jersey,” he explained.

“We came up with a theme about the New Zealand soldiers who used to come to Italy, so we based ourselves on them and the second division that came here to fight in the war.

“It is kind of like us being the soldiers and fighting for something and that is the trophy … every day is a new battle so we just have to keep marching forward.”

His England counterpart Charlie Ewels already knows what it feels like to be crowned a world champion having been part of the squad that beat South Africa 21-20 at Eden Park last year and is eager to experience that feeling again.

“It was a pretty special moment for me, the highlight of my relatively short career so far,” explained Ewels, whose side scraped into the semi-finals as the best runner-up but then beat top seeds South Africa 28-20 to keep alive hopes of a third successive title for England.

“It would be awesome if we could emulate that this Saturday.

SWITCHED ON “I think it would just represent the hard work we’ve put in for these

last four weeks and throughout the season. If you look at the side that started out in the Six Nations and the side now people probably wouldn’t recognise the style of rugby we are playing.

“Ultimately you come into the competition to put yourself in the final and compete for the trophy so everyone is really excited and can’t wait.”

The respect for each other’s sides is inevitably mutual.

“They’ve been good,” Ewels said of New Zealand. “They have got some fantastic individuals and play a real good brand of rugby so we’re going to have to be switched on.

“Ultimately you come to these tournaments to play against the best in the world so that’s where we want to be.”

Moli added: “We know it is a final and we know England are going to come at us strongly and we are preparing for a big match. England have got a couple of big boys in their group, so we’ll have to chop them low. Our aim is to front up and just play how we play.”

NZ win U20 Rugby World Cup

Sunday, 21 June 2015 The New Zealand Herald New Zealand have raised their fifth World Rugby Under 20 Championship title after edging England 21-16 in the final in Cremona.

It sparked a proud haka by the New Zealand team and another breakdancing routine by coach Scott Robertson, last seen after he guided Canterbury to the 2013 ITM Cup. The rugby was typical for a final, staunch defence met by tireless efforts to break down those systems, but New Zealand may well have lost it after another appallingly bad intervention by a match official led to the sinbinning of No 8 Akira Ioane in the second spell.

Upon the recommendation of assistant referee Ben Whitehouse of Wales, Ioane was yellow carded for a no-arms tackle. There was just one problem: he used his arms. A quick check with the TMO, which has often been the default option with referees in this tournament, would have shown this. That option was not used.

New Zealand coach Scott Robertson, center, celebrates with his players at the end of the Rugby Junior World Championship final match against England at Cremona’s Zini stadium New Zealand coach Scott Robertson, center, celebrates with his players at the end of the Rugby Junior World Championship final match against England at Cremona’s Zini stadium England started with fire and brimstone in the pack, and after just three minutes, second five Max Clark ran a good angle to beat lock Josh Goodhue and open the scoring. New Zealand were copping penalties and throwing the ball away in contact. They lost No 12 TJ Faiane to a knee injury and were down 10-3 until a slice of Vince Aso magic.

The Aucklander had endured a mixed tournament, but he made an immediate impact as replacement for Faiane. There looked to be nothing on, but Aso made a 35m solo dart to score in the corner.

At 11-10 by halftime, New Zealand looked to be slowly gaining the upper hand. They weren’t contesting the England lineout drive, and

that paid dividends when they won a penalty.

Explosive wing Tevita Li who, along with Ioane, was shortlisted for World Rugby junior player of the year, was well bottled up by the England defence, and Ioane himself could make little headway around the fringes, but he did plough over from short range after halfback Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi spurned a shot at goal with a quick tap. 18-10, and then came the Ioane intervention. The No 9’s commitment was highlighted with a spectacular catch-dive to snuff out an England attacking foray.

The Ioane incident allowed England back into the contest and they would have scored if Piers O’Connor had not been in front of the kicker after a messy sequence of play.

Otere Black kicked his third penalty at the 58 minute mark and then New Zealand hung on grimly, tackling resolutely and forcing England into rare errors.

“It was very physical. Big ups to the boys. They came out and executed what we needed,” said captain Atu Moli, one of seven in the match-day squad of 23 who took sweet revenge after the disappointment of the 2014 campaign.

Robertson, just before he pulled out his dance moves, was beaming: “We won a tight game. There’s really good character and culture in this group.”

This was New Zealand’s first junior world title since the class of 2011, captained by Luke Whitelock and coached by Mark Anscombe, beat England 33-22 in the decider in the Italian city of Padova.

New Zealand 21 (Vince Aso, Akira Ioane tries; Otere Black con, 3 pen) England 16 (Max Clark try; Rory Jennings con, 3 pen) Halftime: 11-10 New Zealand 20 Jun 2015 World Rugby The New Zealand Under 20 team will return home World Champions for the first time since 2011 after defeating England 21-16 in a hard fought Final in Cremona, Italy this morning, New Zealand ran out the winners over defending champions England to claim their fifth World Rugby Under 20 Championship title and their first since 2011 when they also defeated England in Italy.

New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive Steve Tew said the result was a tremendous achievement against a strong England side.

“We are very proud of this team of young men who have shown such determination and skill to honour the great record of New Zealand teams in this championship.

“The tournament has become increasingly competitive in recent years so today’s win is a huge achievement for the players and their management team led by coaches Scott Robertson, Leon McDonald and Tana Umaga.

“This championship provides a great pathway for young players to prove themselves on the international stage and the success today shows the depth of exciting young rugby talent coming through the ranks which augers well for the future,” said Tew. “We congratulate the team on a very impressive result and look forward to welcoming them home.”

The team returns to New Zealand on Tuesday

England miss out on third straight world U20 title against New Zealand New Zealand 21-16 England Ian Malin The Guardian Saturday 20 June 2015 21.56 BST Last modified on Sunday 21 June 2015 00.25 BST England’s senior players are off to Colorado next month to prepare for the World Cup at high altitude. Their Under-20 team have scaled a couple of peaks themselves recently by winning the last two world junior titles. But in the northern Italian town of Cremona it was the young New Zealanders who reached loftier heights.

The Baby Blacks were favourites to win the final and deserved their victory but Jon Callard’s team were more than honourable in defeat. Maro Itoje, the Saracen who was last year’s victorious Under-20 captain, has already forced his way into the senior squad and will be on that flight to the United States and one or two England forwards here suggested they may be stepping up themselves soon.

Paul Hill, the 20-year-old Yorkshire Carnegie prop who moves to Northampton this summer, is England’s most experienced player. He was rock-solid in the front row while the flanker Lewis Ludlam, who will be a club-mate of Hill at Franklin’s Gardens, was outstanding at the breakdown alongside the Harlequins No8 James Chisholm.

England can count themselves unlucky that a try that might have turned the game 12 minutes after the break was disallowed. Ludlam brilliantly turned the ball over and the wing Howard Packman showed his turn of pace to kick on and deliver a pass to Piers O’Connor but the Wasps replacement was judged to be just ahead of Packman before he received his pass and dived over. Charlie Ewels, the England captain, had no illusions, however. “We let ourselves down a bit tonight. Hopefully we can learn from this defeat but we were not at our best” England made the perfect start when the Bath centre Max Clark took a pass from Rory Jennings to use his strength to slice through the New Zealand defence for the first try of the evening. The fly-half Jennings, another Bath player, converted and England were on their way.

The English pack, lighter than their New Zealand counterparts whose captain prop, Atunaisa Moli, at over 19st is the heaviest player in the tournament, were competing well at the breakdown and New Zealand took some time to get into their stride. The Manawatu fly-half Otere Black and Jennings swapped penalties before New Zealand lost two players to early injuries.

Their other prop, Ricky Riccitelli, left the field, although he returned before the break and the highly rated centre Tinoai Faiane was then injured in a collision with England’s full-back Aaron Morris. Faiane played on in pain before being replaced by Vince Tavae-Aso, who had been on the pitch for seconds before he received his first touch.

He wriggled clear of two weak tackles before outsprinting Morris to touch down in the corner. Black missed the touchline conversion but his

penalty four minutes before the break gave New Zealand the lead for the first time.

When Akira Ioane powered over for New Zealand’s second try just after the interval the writing was on the wall for England. Ioane, though, was harshly given a yellow card for a foul tackle on Jennings, who punished his indiscretion with a second penalty. Jennings and Black continued to exchange penalties as fireworks lit up the night sky but England were unable to find that extra spark for a third successive title.

Earlier in the evening, the power of the South African forwards helped secure the bronze medal with a 31-18 victory over France. But New Zealand were overwhelmingly the best side in this year’s tournament.

England will look for a comeback when Manchester hosts the tournament next year.

The Team Aidan Ross Akira Ioane Atunaisa Moli Blake Gibson Hamish Dalzell Henry Stowers Isileli Tu’ungafasi James Blackwell Josh Goodhue Liam Polwart Mitchell Dunshea Mitchell Jacobson Mitchell Karpik Ricky Riccitelli Steven Misa Tau Koloamatangi Anton Lienert-Brown George Bridge Harrison Levien Jack Goodhue Luteru Laulala Mitchell Hunt Nathaniel Apa Otere Black Sean Wainui Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi Tevita Li TJ Faiane Vincent Tavae-Aso

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