New Zealand Under 20 side named for World Rugby U20 Championship opener against Japan

May 30 • General News, Junior Rugby • 1520 Views • Comments Off on New Zealand Under 20 side named for World Rugby U20 Championship opener against Japan

New Zealand Under 20 Head Coach Craig Philpott has named his side to open their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign in France tomorrow morning.

New Zealand will face Japan in Narbonne, France, kick off 7am NZT.

1. Xavier Numia	Wellington
2. Flynn Thomas	Southland
3. Tevita Mafileo	Bay of Plenty
4. John Akau’ola-Laula	Auckland
5. Will Tucker	Canterbury
6. Tom Florence	Taranaki
7. Tom Christie – captain	Canterbury
8. Hoskins Sotutu	Auckland
9. Xavier Roe	Waikato
10. Kaleb Trask	Bay of Plenty
11. Leicester Faingaanuku	Tasman
12. Billy Proctor	Wellington
13. Bailyn Sullivan	Waikato
14. Jamie Spowart	Tasman
15. Vilimoni Koroi	Otago

16. Ricky Jackson	Otago
17. Sione Asi	Manawatu
18. Rob Cobb	Auckland
19. Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa	Auckland
20. Will Tremain	Hawke’s Bay
21. Jay Renton	Southland
22. Harry Plummer	Auckland
23. Scott Gregory	Northland

Philpott said the team has adjusted well in France and players were looking forward to their first match.

“We were travelling for the best part of 40 hours so arrived here reasonably jaded. We’ve had three or four days to get our feet on the ground and some really good training runs and we’re in pretty good shape to come out and perform against Japan,” he said.

In selecting the team for the first match against Japan, Philpott said workload management was at front of mind.

“We’ve got five Test matches in 19 days and a squad of 28; you need to make sure you manage combinations so that you get the very best out of all 28 players. Over these first two games we want to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to contribute and so we are managing the workload accordingly.”

The New Zealand Under 20 team will be looking to continue their form that saw them go through the Oceania Championship undefeated.

“We haven’t had a chance to see any footage of Japan play so the focus has been on us; we’ve been working on our structures in attack and defence and getting them back in place, making sure everyone is really clear how we want to play the game.”