Tries galore as NZ U20 put Ireland to the sword in World Championship

The New Zealand U20’s have booked their place in the semi-finals of the World U20 Championship in Italy, beating Ireland 69-22 on Thursday morning NZT.

New Zealand’s first-place finish in Pool C matches them up with Pool B’s leaders, France, who beat Argentina, Wales, and Spain in their respective group.

The last match of Pool C was hosted in Calvisano between Ireland and New Zealand, where there were 91 points, in an end-to-end thrilling encounter.

Ireland started the better of the two sides, scoring a brilliant try down the left wing within the first ten minutes, where Ireland’s openside flanker, Oisin Minogue, got on the end of a grubber kick from Ireland’s playmaker.

Minogue then kicked it over the covering New Zealand defender, regathered it, and scored in the corner.

A few minutes later, Ireland were in again, through Daniel Green’s try in the corner on the back of some swift backline play from Ireland.

It took New Zealand over 10 minutes to get into the game, and they then started to roll up their sleeves and dominate the collision area.

Experienced No.8 Mosese Bason proved too hard to stop close to the line, after the Baby Blacks had several pick and go’s close to the line. New Zealand No.10 Will Cole converted from right out in front, bringing Ireland’s lead down to only five.

New Zealand’s lock Jayden Sa was yellow carded close to the line after several team infringements, resulting in Ireland taking the three points minutes later. 15-7 after 20 minutes in Calvisano.

The Baby Blacks then got the margin back to one, through a Xavier Treacy try close to the line.

It was at this point that the Kiwis started to take over proceedings in Italy, scoring minutes later through midfielder Cooper Roberts, twisting and turning his way over the line to give the Kiwis a 19-15 lead.

New Zealand kept their strong end to the first half going, scoring another try in the corner, this time through Cole, who received a beautiful inside offload from Maloni Kunawave on the left wing. Cole couldn’t convert his own try, but New Zealand’s lead was stretched out to nine points.

Just on the stroke of halftime, New Zealand’s captain Dylan Pledger scooped up the ball from the base of the ruck and had a snipe at the Ireland defence. Pledger found a gap and sprinted under the posts to give the Baby Blacks a convincing 16-point lead going into halftime.

HT: 31-15 to New Zealand.

The second half started just as the first finished, with New Zealand hot on attack through quick ball from the base of the ruck. New Zealand went up the middle with their powerful forwards, before going wide, shifting the ball out to NZ Sevens player and winger for the U20’s, Frank Vaenuku.

Vaenuku beat one defender with pace and bumped the last one off with ease, scoring 10 meters in from touch.

 

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Pledger’s second of the afternoon came after Roberts managed to break through the Ireland defence and hand an offload away to Kunawave, who found Pledger on the inside supporting him.

A classic Baby Blacks driving maul was the next breakthrough, with Highlanders hooker Shaun Kempton grabbing his first try of the tournament.

Kunawave then saw some open space in the backfield, scooping up the ball from the base of the ruck and going all the way to score his first try of the match in Calvisano.

Ireland hit back with a try of their own from replacement prop Billy Bohan, minutes before the try scorer was then red-carded for foul play.

Kempton then scored off yet another dominant driving maul close to the line, before Kunawave finished the game off with another try of his own in the left-hand corner.

FT: 69-22 to New Zealand over Ireland.

New Zealand’s semi-final against France will take place on Tuesday morning 4am NZT in Viadana.