Squads and match officials for U20 Champs
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The squads and match officials have been confirmed for the World Rugby Under-20 Championship.
The tournament will take place over five match days in Rosario and Santa Fe, Argentina, from June 4 to 22.
With senior World Cup fast approaching, players will harbour hopes of graduating from the U20 Championship to rugby’s biggest stage at Japan 2019 or France 2023.
Following a breath-taking 2018 championship, defending champions France welcome back four members of the squad that claimed a historic first title on home soil, including the tournament’s top points scorer Louis Carbonel.
Jean-Baptiste Gros, Matthis Lebel and Killian Geraci are the other players bidding to help Les Bleuets win back-to-back titles.
Australia, fresh from winning the Oceania Rugby U20 Championship last weekend with a 24-0 defeat of New Zealand, will be captained by Fraser McReight, one of their eight returning players from 2018.
One of these is Semisi Tupou, who will be playing in his third U20 Championship, having also featured in Georgia in 2017. He is not alone in returning for a third tournament as Argentina’s Gonzalo Garcia and Juan Pablo Castro will do the same.
Six Nations U20 Grand Slam winners Ireland will be hoping for a much better campaign in 2019 having needed a last gasp try against Japan to avoid being relegated to the U20 Trophy. Three members of that squad are set to return in Argentina in Harry Byrne, Dylan Tierney-Martin and Charlie Ryan.
Fiji have replaced Japan in the elite tier after winning the U20 Trophy in Romania last year and five members of that title success have been selected by coach Kele Leawere, including flyhalf Caleb Muntz.
The squads are subject to change due to injury or illness before the teams arrive in Argentina. In line with World Rugby’s player welfare commitment, the 2019 edition will feature a trial that will permit teams to have all non-starting squad members available to be used as one of the eight permitted substitutes.
The 12 match officials from 10 countries who will take charge of the 12th edition of the premier age grade tournament have also been announced by World Rugby.
World Rugby’s age grade competitions are important to match official development with 20 of the 23 officials selected for Rugby World Cup 2019 having graduated via the U20 Championship.
The nine referees selected are Damon Murphy (Australia), Pablo Deluca (Argentina), Craig Evans (Wales), Andrea Piardi (Italy), Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa), Christophe Ridley (England), Ben Blain (Scotland), Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) and James Doleman (New Zealand).
The three Television Match Officials (TMOs) are Brian MacNeice (Ireland), Santiago Borsani (Argentina) and Ian Smith (Australia).
* For the fixtures, CLICK HERE!
* For the squads, CLICK HERE!
* For the match officials, CLICK HERE!
