The World Rugby U20 Championship 2016 will take place take place in Georgia from 31 May-18 June 2017 involve 12 teams: defending champions England, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, France, host Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.
13 Interesting Facts World Rugby U20 Championship
Here are some fun stats and information about the tournament:
- The tournament was previously known as the IRB Junior World championship.
- 3 Nations have won the tournament, England (2013, 2014, 2016) South Africa (2012) and New Zealand (2008-11,2015).
- England have reached the final a record seven times.
- Since its inception in 2008 there have been over 100 players who have played in the junior rugby championship going on to represent their countries senior teams at international level.
- Telusa Veainu (New Zealand) is the only player to score a hat-trick in an U20 Championship final which was in 2010.
- Only three times has an U20 Championship final not featured New Zealand – in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
- All 17 nations that have taken part in the tournament have had a least one player go on to represent their country at test level.
- 21-20 is the smalles winnign margin in a U20 Championship final England vs South Africa in 2014.
- Current well known international players that represented their nation at the World Rugby U20 Championship include:
- New Zealand: Sam Whitelock, Julian Savea, Sam Cane, Brodie Retallick, Beauden Barrett and Aron Smith
- Australia: David Pocock, Will Genia, Quade Cooper.
- South Africa: Patrick Lambie, Jan Serfontein, Handre Pollard, Curwin Bosch
- Others: Sam Warburton and Leigh Halfpenny( Wales), Conor Murray(Ireland), Ben Youngs and Courtney Laws (England)
- South Africa conceded just 3 tries when they won the tournament in 2012.
- The record for most individual points in a match is set by Pierre Bernard (France) against Wales in 2009. He scored 33 points.
- The biggest win in a game was South Africa versus USA in 2008.The final score was 108-18.
- Madison Hughes(USA) and Stefan Patrascu (Romania) hold the record for leading point scorers at the tournament with 82 points.
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