Live blog: Junior World Championship in South Africa – day one

It’s day one at the Glastonbury of age-grade international rugby, the men’s U20s Rugby World Cup in South Africa with Paarl and Stellenbosch hosting three matches each. Usually, the Junior World Championship is an annual event, but this latest renewal has been four years in the making due to the pandemic. 

France are the reigning champions having won the tournament in Argentina in 2019, but the players who helped them to that back-to-back title triumph have long since grown up and gotten on with the business of forging their professional club team careers. 

The French class of 2023 will get their campaign going with the day’s opening match in Stellenbosch versus Japan, by which stage the result will already be known in the Paarl opener featuring Argentina versus Italy.

England versus Six Nations Grand Slam champions Ireland is the juicy second fixture on the Paarl Gimnasium bill that will be rounded off by New Zealand taking on Wales.  

Meanwhile, 30kms south along the R101 and R44 at the Danie Craven Stadium, Australia, who recently shared their two-match series away to the Baby Blacks, will tackle Fiji before the round one schedule wraps up with South Africa hosting Georgia, who shocked England in Tbilisi in their final warm-up. It all makes for an intriguing day’s action on the RugbyPass live blog: