Australia's Schedule at the Under 21 World Championships 2006

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Aussies face junior All Blacks
January 17, 2006

AUSTRALIA, seeded second, will play New Zealand and Scotland in the the pool stages of the International Rugby Board under-21 world championship in France (June 9-25).

South Africa, which beat Australia in the final last year, had been handed the No.1 seeding.

Australia has been placed with seventh-seed England and Italy, the 10th seed, in Pool B, but under the competition's unusual draw will play all three teams from Pool C in the group phase – New Zealand, Scotland and the winner of the Oceania qualifying tournament between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

The top team from each pool qualifies for the semi-finals.

The pools with seedings:

POOL A: 1-South Africa, 8-Wales, 9-Ireland.
Pool B: 2-Australia, 7-England, 10-Italy.
Pool C: 3-New Zealand, 6-Scotland, 11-Oceania qualifier (winner of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga).


Australia's schedule:

June 9: Scotland
June 13: Oceania qualifier
June 17: New Zealand
June 21: Semi-finals and classification
June 25: Final and classification.

From ARU:

Australia has been seeded second behind 2005 winners South Africa for this year's IRB Under 21 World Championship to be played in Clermont-Ferrand and Vichy in the Auvergne region of France from 9-25 June.
Australia, who were narrowly beaten by the Junior Springboks in the Final in Argentina last year, have already begun their preparations for the tournament with training camps in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane prior to Christmas.
The top seed in Pool B, Australia will play Scotland, an Oceania Qualifier, (either Fiji, Tonga or Samoa), and New Zealand before the Semi Final and Final stages.
Coach Chris Hickey says the announcement of the pools, seeding and schedule is the next step in preparing a strong and experienced squad for the tournament.
"We've got three tough matches and we'll need to win them all to make the finals," said Hickey.
"New Zealand is traditionally strong, we played Scotland last year and whoever comes out of Oceania will be the best of those three teams, and they'll physical."
"In terms of our preparation we have another camp in February, where we'll look at about 80 players with the idea of reducing that squad to 40 or 45 for a four day camp in March and then selecting a squad in mid to late May."
Six of last year's Australian Under 21 representatives achieved Wallaby status in 2005, with Tatafu Polota-Nau, Lloyd Johansson and Adam Ashley-Cooper all making their Test debut while fellow Under 21s Leroy Houston, Digby Ioane and Cameron Shepherd all played for Australia A against the French Barbarians.
"The tournament is a great opportunity for players to develop and for someone like Tatafu, who won the IRB Under 21 Player Of The Year Award last year, it can be a great stepping stone to Test rugby," said Hickey.
"We had a very successful group of Under 19s as well last season, and with 12 or so players still available from the Under 21 team I expect we'll be able to pull together a strong squad for France."
The tournament will see the 12 teams play across four pools at a total of six venues: Riom, Issoire, Thiers, Cournon d'Auvergne, Vichy and, for the semi-finals and final, Clermont Ferrand's Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin, which is the 14,000 capacity home of Heineken Cup side ASM Clermont Auvergne.
The 11th seed and final place at the championship will be decided in March, the berth going to the winner of the Oceania qualifying tournament to be held between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.