Scots draw tough Pool in U20 World Championships
28 Feb 2019Scotland U20 will face a stern assessment in this year’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Argentina.
Joining the young Scots in Pool C are six-time U20 champions New Zealand, last year’s bronze medallists South Africa and an increasingly-impressive Georgian age-grade side, all of whom are ranked above the men in blue.
The world’s premier age-grade rugby tournament will be hosted in Rosario and Santa Fe this June (4-22 June) and features 12 nations across three pools of four, based on rankings from the 2018 competition.
Defending champions and 2018 hosts France will take on home-favourites Argentina, Wales and newly-promoted World Rugby U20 Trophy winners Fiji, in Pool A, while Pool B sees 2018 runners-up England face Australia, Italy and Ireland.
WORLD RUGBY U20 CHAMPIONSHIP
| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C |
| France | England | South Africa |
| Argentina | Australia | New Zealand |
| Wales | Italy | Georgia |
| Fiji | Ireland | Scotland |
SCOTLAND U20 SCHEDULE
Tuesday 4 June: South Africa v Scotland (kick-off 10.30am)
Saturday 8 June: New Zealand v Scotland (kick-off 3.30pm)
Wednesday 12 June: Georgia v Scotland (kick-off 10.30am)
Tickets for the event which provides a great chance to see the best young players in the world are available at www.ticketek.com.ar priced from £5.65 for pool matches.
First held in Wales in 2008, only four nations have lifted the distinctive trophy: New Zealand, South Africa, England, and for the first time in 2018, France.
The tournament is already a proven pathway to the top with a total of 653 players having graduated from the U20 Championship to play test rugby since New Zealand won the inaugural title.
It is anticipated that Rugby World Cup 2019 will see more than 300 players take the field in Japan who have previously appeared at U20 Championships.
Argentina is an experienced host of international age-grade tournaments.
The hosts of the World Rugby U20 Championship 2019 have seen the future starts of world rugby up close in 1997 (U19) and 2005 (U21) before age-grade rugby was unified under the U20 category.
In 2010, the U20 Championship was held in the same region as the one that will host 12 nations come June and Buenos Aires hosted the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 at which Argentina won the men’s rugby sevens gold medal in front of an exuberant home crowd.
Following a record breaking U20 Championship in France last year that saw 97,776 fans attend across the tournament, a peak domestic television audience of 1.31 million fans watching the final and more than 41.5 million video views in total, Rosario and Santa Fe will be expecting a great level of local interest and passionate support for Argentina.
