What happened the last time New Zealand U20 beat Scotland in Georgia

The New Zealand Under-20s made it two from two at the World Rugby Junior Championship in Kutaisi with a 36-26 win over Scotland in soaring heat.

In an exciting parallel, when New Zealand won their sixth and last World Rugby Junior Championship in Georgia, they also beat Scotland 42-20 in a pool game. Future Tongan international and Nelson College product Tima Fainga’anuku scored three tries. Hooker Asafo Aumua also barged over for a try, starting a meteoric tournament for the Wellington hooker. Aumua, now a 22-Test All Black, has won two NPC titles for Wellington. He has played 66 times, scored 31 tries, and had 45 wins. With the Hurricanes, he won an elusive Super Rugby title in 2026 and has made 90 appearances with 19 tries in 63 wins.

In Kutaisi, Scotland brought plenty of physicality and a lineout drive, but that was about it. New Zealand was far from convincing. However, All Blacks Sevens winger Kele Lasaqa and Auckland fullback Cohen Norrie, who scored two tries, were standouts in a backline that made five more linebreaks.

New Zealand lacked the collective power to defend rolling mauls, a common feature of the early 2017 tournament, when they conceded five tries from that move in their first two games. How did New Zealand fix this potential Achilles heel?

“It wasn’t something we really thought about, but when Scotland and Italy kept doing it, we had to show some mongrel in our remaining matches,” Aumua told RugbyPass.

“It was challenging. The best thing was not to concede penalties and let the opposition get into our half.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins

3

Draws

0

Wins

2

Average Points scored

29

24

First try wins

20%

Home team wins

100%

New Zealand conceded three rolling maul tries in their 68-26 win over Italy. The game was highlighted by two tries from future All Blacks winger Caleb Clarke and 19 points from Tiaan Falcon’s boot. The son of former M?ori All Black Gordon Falcon, Tiaan briefly represented Hawke’s Bay and the Chiefs before heading to Japan. There, he has played 48 games and scored 234 points for Toyota Verblitz. Italy’s lineout was dominated by Niccolò Cannone, who has played 64 Tests for Italy, and Michele Lamaro, capped 55 times.

Ireland was steamrolled 69-3 with hat-tricks to Clarke and Will Jordan, now just five tries short of passing the All Blacks’ all-time Test record of 49 held by Doug Howlett since 2007. Caelan Doris, with 47 wins in 60 Tests for Ireland and 94 in 109 games for Leinster, was Ireland’s most prominent player. Doris played all three Tests in Ireland’s historic series win in New Zealand in 2022, the first by a visiting side since 1994.

A French semi-final proved to be New Zealand’s toughest challenge. Aumua scored a try in the 39-26 win, but he remembers the French for the wrong reasons.

“The French were physical and dirty. I got eye gouged. I didn’t see who did it, but I wasn’t going to take that,” Aumua recalled.

“With the French, you have to be really physical and stop their momentum. They can be unpredictable.”

Aumua opposed Péato Mauvaka, who has won 38 of his 46 Tests. Falcon scored 19 points for New Zealand.

The final against England, whose most prominent senior internationals became Ben Earl, Alex Mitchell and Jacob Umaga, saw Aumua become Jonah Lomu reincarnated. Aumua barreled over for tries in the 25th, 37th and 60th minutes as New Zealand romped to a 64-17 triumph, their biggest win over England at any level of male rugby.

They bombed three more clear-cut try-scoring chances, and Stephen Perofeta missed three of 10 conversions. Additional tries were scored by Dalton Papali’i, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Luke Jacobson (2), Josh McKay and Tom Christie. Perofeta, Jacobson and Papali’i became All Blacks. Rakete-Stones and Walker-Leawere won a Super Rugby title with Aumua at the Hurricanes. Christie won seven Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders. McKay has played 82 times for Glasgow after brief stints with Canterbury, the Crusaders and the Highlanders.

Aumua was surprised by England’s lack of physicality but praised the Kiwi brotherhood.

“England weren’t as tough as I thought they would be. They didn’t front early on, and we got on top,” Aumua recalled.

“I’ve always liked to bring physically. That day England struggled to match it.”

England captain Zach Mercer summed up New Zealand’s dominance: “I’ve never witnessed a team that just keeps coming like that with that spirit.”

Mercer played in England Test wins against South Africa (12-11) and Japan (35-15) in 2018 and has since enjoyed a long career in France with Montpellier and Toulon.

“I think the difference between 2016 (when New Zealand was fifth) and 2017 was the brotherhood,” Aumua reflected. “There were no groups in the 2017 team. In 2016, the Super Rugby boys hung out with the Super Rugby boys. The NPC boys stayed with the NPC boys. It wasn’t a very united group.

“Looking back, it’s pretty special what we achieved. Pretty much the whole team became professionals. There were seven All Blacks and a couple who played for Samoa and Tonga.”

That includes Aumaua’s Hurricanes teammate Ereatara Enari, who was vice-captain, lock Samuel Slade, prop Ezekiel Lindenmuth, and reserve hooker JP Sauni.

Meanwhile, Aumua had made his NPC debut for Wellington in 2016 against Northland. He scored three tries in a 29-21 win. Aumua was the first hooker from Wellington and just the fourth in Division I history after Hika Reid, Jesse Ranui and Francis Smith to score a hat-trick in an NPC match. He joined Brian McGrattan (v North Auckland, 1984) and Jeremy Thrush (v Southland, 2015) as the only Wellington tight forwards to score a hat-trick in an NPC match.

After the 2017 World Rugby Junior Championships, Aumua returned to the Wellington Lions. They started the season in the lower championship but beat Bay of Plenty 59-41 in the final on October 27 to win promotion back to the Premiership. On September 17, they beat eventual Premiership winners Canterbury by a record 60-14. Aumua scored a 75-metre solo try in which he outpaced All Blacks wing George Bridge. Aumua was equally devastating in scoring two long-range tries in a 42-26 win against Taranaki. Wellington won 11 of 12 games and scored 515 points.

Aumua was an All Black at 21, coming off the bench in wins against the UK Barbarians (31-22) and the French XV (28-23) on his first Northern Hemisphere tour.

Now a father of two, Aumua, 29, is preparing for the All Blacks’ 2026 season. He has recovered from a spell off due to concussion and, according to All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan, is poised to play his best rugby.

“I honestly believe his best Test rugby is ahead of him for the All Blacks,” Ryan said.

“We saw signs of that probably a couple of years ago when he came on against Ireland, and he came on for Codie after a head knock against England and did the job.

“There is good competition, but Asafo is going really well.”