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The rematch they've all been waiting for: age-grade New Zealand and England sides look to get revenge

By Tom Vinicombe
England's Owen Farrell and New Zealand's Beauden Barrett squred off in the 2011 U20 Rugby World Championship. (Original photos by Getty Images)

It’s been well documented that the last time England and New Zealand faced off in a World Cup was in 1999.

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The All Blacks earned a comfortable 30-16 win in that fixture at Twickenham. They were eventually knocked out of the tournament at the semi-final stages by a rampaging France outfit.

New Zealand outside backs Sevu Reece, Rieko Ioane and Jordie Barrett were just a couple of years old when that competition took place. England’s Tom Curry had just turned one.

For a number of newer players, Saturday’s match will be their first involvement in a Test between England and New Zealand.

That doesn’t mean it will be the first time they’ve experienced the massive rivalry before, however.

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England reserve hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie says he is “massively excited” heading into the weekend.

“I’ve only ever played New Zealand in the U20s so it’s going to be a new thing for me and I’m just getting excited for the semi-final and bringing it on,” Cowan-Dickie said. “Their record’s good, they do win quite a few games so you’ve got to be excited.”

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You only have to go back a few World Cup cycles to see the history between some of the players that will line up on Saturday.

With stunning regularity, New Zealand and England squared off at least every two years in the Under 20 Junior World Championship between 2009 and 2017 – and plenty of the current World Cup representatives were involved.

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2008

2008 marked the first-ever Under 20 Championship, replacing the Under 21 and Under 19 versions of the competition.

New Zealand and England – indisputably the top two sides – unsurprisingly met in the competition final.

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The Baby Blacks fielded current New Zealand representatives Sam Whitelock and Ryan Crotty in their starting line-up, with Aaron Smith on the bench. Sean Maitland, who turned out for Scotland at the 2019 World Cup, also joined the fray late in the game for the Kiwis.

England had to make do with just one current national rep, in the form of reserve halfback Ben Youngs. Youngs will face off with Smith in the starting 9 jerseys this weekend.

New Zealand made short work of their opposition, triumphing 38-3. The Baby Blacks impressively conceded no tries throughout the whole tournament.

2009

The 2009 edition of the tournament, coincidentally hosted in Japan, saw the two nations meet in the competition final. Youngs, England’s most capped current player, and rake Jamie George both started in that final match. George, now considered one of the world’s best hookers, lined up on the openside flank whilst Youngs played in his usual scrumhalf role.

There were no current All Blacks in NZ’s set-up in 2009, but that didn’t stop the Baby Blacks from recording a convincing 44-28 win.

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2011

2011 was a special year for New Zealand rugby fans. It took a monumental effort from the All Blacks, but they finally secured the William Webb Ellis trophy for the first time in 24 years – on home soil, nonetheless.

Months earlier, New Zealand also managed to net another rugby trophy: the Junior World Championship.

Their final opponents were, of course, England.

The New Zealanders rolled out a frankly scary side, in hindsight.

The starting XV in the final included current All Blacks Codie Taylor, Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane, TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett – all players who will once again turn out on Saturday for the Men in Black.

They also welcomed into the mix the likes of Ben Tameifuna, Brad Shields and Gareth Anscombe, who have now been capped for Tonga, England and Wales respectively.

England put out a fairly formidable side too.

Mako Vunipola started in the front row whilst George Ford, Owen Farrell and Elliot Daly formed an exceptionally talented midfield. All four will line up against New Zealand again on Saturday evening in Yokohama – though Daly has been shifted back to fullback.

The two titans traded points in the first half but the Baby Blacks pulled away after halftime, winning the match 33-22. Barrett, Tameifuna and Charles Piutau scored tries for New Zealand and Christian Wade and Henry Thomas dotted down for England.

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2013

Two years later, the rivals were at it again.

This time, in France, they met one round earlier and were playing for a spot in the grand final.

New Zealand’s side wasn’t quite as strong as it had been in 2011, but there were still a few men on the park that will be familiar to fans of the current All Blacks team, including locks Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu, and captain Ardie Savea.

The 2013 England side boasted plenty of talent too.

Cowan-Dickie anchored the front row whilst Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell combined in the outside backs. Henry Slade – used at outside centre in England’s quarter-final victory over Australia – ran the team from the 10 jersey. Current Wales international Ross Moriarty also started for the English.

The game ended in a similar scoreline to 2011’s tête-à-tête but instead in England’s favour, with the Red Roses triumphing 33-21.

England took an insurmountable 20-8 lead into the break, courtesy of tries to Watson and flanker Matt Hankin – who was forced to retire from rugby last year due to concussion. Slade netted 18 of England’s points with four penalties and three conversions to his name.

2015

2015, when the All Blacks managed a repeat World Cup victory, again saw England and New Zealand go head-to-head in the U20 World Championship.

Anton Lienert-Brown and Jack Goodhue, who will start in the midfield for the All Blacks this weekend, both marched out for the Baby Blacks in 2015 (though Lienert-Brown was at centre and Goodhue was on the right wing) while George Bridge was an unused sub on the bench. Atu Moli also captained the side and was in with a chance of earning a bench spot for this weekend’s match but lost out to Angus Ta’avao.

Current England World Cup squad members Lewis Ludlam and Ellis Genge were prominent performers in England Under 20 side but won’t feature on Saturday.

Like during the last World Cup year, the 2015 match fell the way of the Kiwis, 21 points to 16.

2017

The most recent fixture between the two Under 20 sides came in the 2017 final. New Zealand cantered to a huge 64-17 victory, led by Luke Jacobson – who was named in the All Blacks initial World Cup squad but returned home early due to concussion concerns.

It’s been an almost whitewash of wins for the Baby Blacks over the last 20 years with England ending up on the wrong side of a few substantial scorelines. Whilst results for the Test side will take precedence, you can be sure that players from both sides will remember the various encounters the teams have shared through all levels of the game, giving them that little bit more extra motivation to take out Saturday’s semi-final.

Eddie Jones is confident that his men can handle the pressure against a well-versed New Zealand side:

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J
Jon 42 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 3 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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