The Rugby Under 20 Championship is well under way with two rounds played and one match remaining. This tournament is being hosted in South Africa and includes Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Last year the under 20's won the World Cup thrashing every team they faced so this is a new batch of players and we kind of knew what to expect due to how strong junior rugby is in South Africa.
The bonus point system for this tournament is slightly different and under normal circumstances the Junior Boks would have already won this tournament due to the results after the first two rounds. They play New Zealand on Saturday and have to make sure they either win, draw or score one bonus point to clinch the title.
Looking at Australia, New Zealand and Argentina they are of a similar standard and the matches between them are closely contested with not much between them. The Junior Boks have racked up a points difference of 66 points in just two matches which shows the gulf between them and the rest is rather big.
The reason why South African rugby is so strong at the junior levels is that they have a strong domestic school rugby system that has been developed over the last 10 years. The players coming through the school programs have been in the system for 5 years and this is treated like a professional set up.
When players are leaving the school system they are ready for professional rugby having had conditioning coaches, dieticians and coached the same way professional players are coached with professional teams. This is kind of scary to think that the under 20 players are ready for international rugby and they are still very young.
The school system is the feeder system for the adult rugby teams and many of the leading professional teams have scouts on the ground offering contracts for those players standing out. The scary part is there could be 10 players for every position that could walk into professional teams tomorrow so many youngsters will be lost to other countries. We saw at the back end of last season a few players accepting contracts with sides in Europe and one is already penciled in as a future Irish international.
When your feeder system at grass roots level is strong then the chances are your national team will also be strong and with South Africa having won the last two World Cups the chances of a third are looking more likely.
Already having watched the first two rounds of this tournament you can see two or three players that will be featuring on the international stage within the next 12 months. The skills and power these players have is what you would expect form a player in his mid twenties and not just turning 20 and in some cases still in their teens.
When I played Under 20 rugby back in the days it was a fast open game and if you played in a better team they would control the tempo of play. The Junior Boks is controlling the tempo of play and thus are showing their dominance as the other teams cannot handle the power and speed being thrown at them. In many ways it is very one sided and does seem unfair yet it is for the other nations to improve or be left behind. If this is the best that the other countries have then they have a good 10 years of catching up to do in order to compete and then would still be behind due to SA rugby having already moved forward again.