Preview: U20 World Cup finals
The Under-20 World Cup competition reaches its climax in Cremona on Saturday, with what many believe is going to be one of the best finals ever.
Two-time defending champions England face four-time champions New Zealand in a delectable showdown.
New Zealand has expressed their "respect" for an England team chasing a three-peat.
The New Zealanders, who said they have been studying England for months, are keen to express themselves and not get bogged down in a game of "playing percentages".
England appear to have the better forward pack heading into the game and that is an area where they will target the Kiwis.
However, England's defence will be severely tested by the attacking prowess of a backline that features skilful players like Mitchell Hunt, Anton Lienert-Brown and Tevita Li.
The Baby Blacks' assistant coach, Leon MacDonald, said they are well aware that the bar will be raised considerably by England.
"We're going to have to be a lot better than we were against Fr
ance," MacDonald said of their comfortable 45-7 humiliation of the French in the semifinal earlier this week.
"They're not going to give us the same opportunities as France gave us.
"That defence is pretty hard to breach, so our attack is going to have to be pretty spot on.
"It's going to be a massive challenge for us, but we've got some massive belief as well.
"We're pretty confident that we can play a game they haven't encountered yet in the [U20] World Cup or Six Nations."
Since making the final that research and preparation has cranked up another gear, but the prior knowledge the coaches had of England will help New Zealand build a plan to beat the defending champions.
"My eyes are square, I've seen so much of them," MacDonald said.
"We've watched them throughout the tournament, we watched them throughout the Six Nations, so we know exactly what to expect.
"They've got a strong pack, big and physical, strong at scrum time, good at line-out drives, and they like to play a little bit more than a lot of the other northern hemisphere teams.
"They just had a hiccup against France [in pool play]. They turned it around and put in a really dominant performance against a very strong South African team, they blew them off the park, so they're a helluva team."
This will be the fourth Final between the two nations, but the first since 2011 – when New Zealand won a fourth successive title, after a 33-22 victory over England in Padova.
Five teams have reached an U20 Championship Final – New Zealand, England, Australia, South Africa and Wales.
Three teams have lifted the coveted trophy in New Zealand (2008 to 2011), South Africa (2012) and England (2013 and 2014).
This will be the sixth appearance in the Final for both England and New Zealand. However, while New Zealand have a winning ratio of 80 percent from their past finals, England's is only 40 percent.
The seven captains to have lifted the coveted trophy are Chris Smith (New Zealand, 2008), Aaron Cruden (New Zealand, 2009), Tyler Bleyendaal (New Zealand, 2010), Luke Whitelock (New Zealand, 2011), Wiaan Liebenberg (South Africa, 2012), Jack Clifford (England, 2013) and Maro Itoje (England, 2014).
Only twice has an U20 championship Final not featured New Zealand – in 2013 and 2014.
The 2013 title decider was the only Final not to feature a Southern Hemisphere team – England beat Wales 23-15 in Vannes.
The last time the Final took place in Italy was in 2011 and among the players involved that day were Player of the Year 2014 Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett, TJ Perenara and Charles Piutau for New Zealand and George Ford, Owen Farrell and Joe Launchbury for England.
A total of 364 points have been scored in the seven previous finals.
Forty-one tries have been scored in finals, all bar 18 of them by four-time champions New Zealand. Twenty-eight of these tries – or 68.29 percent – have been turned into seven pointers.
The smallest winning margin in an U20 championship final is the single point that separated England and South Africa in 2014.
Fixtures (kick-off is local time – GMT plus two hours):
Saturday, June 20:
Eleventh-place play-off: Italy v Samoa (16.30)
Ninth-place play-off: Argentina v Japan (11.00)
Seventh-place play-off: Ireland v Scotland (13.00)
Fifth-place play-off: Wales v Australia (15.00)
Third-place play-off: France v South Africa (18.30)
Final: New Zealand v England (20.30)
Source: @WorldRugby
