By Jonathan Bowen
This weekend sees the return of the Under 20s Rugby World Championships after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic. This year’s tournament will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, and it promises to be the most open tournament in years. There will be three groups of four teams, with Ireland drawn in the same group as Australia, England, and Fiji. This group promises to offer up some tough and tight games.
Ireland is coming off back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slam titles. Still, with a lack of matches played against the southern hemisphere teams over the last four years, I expect Ireland will find it challenging to play Australia and Fiji.
Australia has just completed a drawn series against New Zealand, with both games taking place in New Zealand and the Fijians promise to deliver a fast-paced running game, match fitness and stamina being the key to Ireland’s success. One factor playing to their advantage is that it will be wintertime, so the squad will not be exposed to the heat and humidity that the provincial teams were exposed to during the URC and European Cup season.
Gus McCarthy will be captaining the Irish squad, and with Sam Prendergast (Ireland’s Player of the Six Nations tournament this year) leading the line, expectations are high that this squad is good enough to lift the title.
South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand will severely threaten Ireland’s chances of lifting the title this year. The home nation, South Africa, will be eager to lift the title and show off what the future Springbok team will look like.
There is a lot of pressure on Sam Prendergast to perform for Ireland, as many fans and pundits see him as a potential replacement for Johnny Sexton once he retires after the World Cup in September.
The French are the defending Champions; however, after a disappointing Six Nations campaign, many believe that this French team has a bit of work to do if they are to challenge the big four for the title. England is in the same group as Ireland; for England to win the title, beating Ireland and Australia in the group stage will send a message of intent to the other teams in the competition.
New Zealand should get through their group without too many issues, with games against France, Wales, and Japan, given that the knockout stage is based on complete seeding, not just whether you finish in the top two places.
The pressure on all teams to top their group is immense, as finishing outside the top spot of your group does not guarantee you a place in the semi-final.
All the games will be live on your local NBC affiliate sports channels. The competition kicks off with Ireland playing England at 7:30 am this Saturday.