Young stars following in fathers’ footsteps…

So we are up and running again with another Junior World Cup to feast on over the coming fortnight. We are back in Western Cape which hosted last year’s tournament and the early games were pretty typical of this flagship event that showcases some of the best players aged 20 or under on the planet.

The burning question – again – is can anybody stop France as they seek a fourth title on the bounce and on the evidence of their 49-12 win over debutants Spain they will be difficult to beat even though they only occasionally engaged top gear.

Much of that was due to a dogged and brave performance from the inexperienced Spanish team who tackled and harried the champions for the full 80 and made life distinctly uncomfortable at the lineout and breakdown. Spain find themselves in Cape Town after winning the World Rugby U20 Trophy tournament in Kenya last year and unfortunately for them their two outstanding props from that campaign are now overage so they struggled at scrum time but nothing could disguise the talent and potential of players like full-back Luciano Richardis – already signed up by Toulouse who have a nose for promising Tier 2 players and do much to support them – hooker Diego Gonzalez of whom Stade Francais have high hopes and rock-solid No.8 Jokin Zollezzi.

Packed full of young tyros with serious Top 14 minutes under their belt, France were, however, always going to have too much nous and, despite an occasionally nervous and error strewn performance, no U20 side with Hugo Reus – the tournament’s top scorer 12 months ago – and Leo Carbonneau at half-back is going to struggle for long.

Reus produced the moment of the match, possibly the day, with an outrageous behind his back 25m spin pass to create France’s first try. So embedded are such moves in the French DNA that it doesn’t even seem like showy off or risky, it’s as routine as a Joe Root reverse ramp shot for four.

Talking of Carbonneau, “sons of” invariably feature highly at Junior World cups and Leo is the son of France scrum-half Philippe and like the old man is a bundle of energy and a complete pest at nine.

“Again, the burning question is can anyone stop France as they try to make it four in a row”

Another such individual took centre stage for England as they overcame a sluggish start to pull away from Argentina to post their 40-21 win.

Jack Bracken sped in for a timely hat-trick and, as you might have guessed, is the son of former England scrum-half Kyran Bracken, who was something of an age group star with England schools and England U21. This time last year Kyran was also on the sidelines in Cape Town watching his eldest son Charlie, a scrum-half just like Dad, enjoy a fine campaign as England finished in third place.

As we are going down this route we should also namecheck Angus Staniforth, the powerful Australia wing and son of Aussie World Cup winner Scott Staniforth who got on the scoresheet during Australia’s impressive 35-11 win over Georgia. The Aussies have never won a Junior World Cup but that’s a decent start. And finally, flanker Bryn Ward, son of former Ireland flanker Andy Ward, showed up well in Ireland’s crushing 55-15 win over Italy.

All will unfold in the coming days. Following a Junior World Cup is a rewarding experience but you must have your wits about you and read between the lines to make sense of it all. Success at this level – either personal or collectively – is no guarantee to a glittering senior career. South Africa have won the Junior World Cup just once since it started in 2008 yet remain the strongest rugby nation on the planet. Meanwhile, there are some pretty obscure names on the list of players of the tournament, young guys who for whatever reason didn’t quite bat on. I will spare their blushes.

So a few things to bear in mind. Some teams field all their eligible players while others – notably France in past years although not so much recently – have tended to field more of an U19 team. England don’t always go fully suited and booted either. The precocious Tom Curry, for example, never appeared at a Junior World Cup, twice being on tour with the England senior team when theoretically he would have been selected. Twin Ben also missed out on the 2017 tournament but skippered England to a losing final in 2018 against France. Marcus Smith played in that 2018 final but was unavailable in 2019 when he was called into the senior squad and played against the Barbarians.

Some teams, notably those promoted from the Trophy such as Spain, arrive chronically short of competitive rugby which is a huge disadvantage against the Six Nations teams who are coming off the back of their tournament in the February and March while there is usually some kind of Pacific event that acts as a warm-up for New Zealand and Australia.

Then there is the luck of the draw. The three pools of four teams with the three pool winners and the best runner up progressing to the semi-final is brutal and a number of fine teams and exceptional players have found themselves amongst the also-rans which means they can be easily overlooked.

Back in 2016 France trailed home in 9th – their worst ever finish – after slipping to narrow defeats in two of their pool games, against South Africa and Argentina. You might be forgiven for thinking it was a non-vintage year for France but far from it. Present and correct in that France team were Antoine Dupont, Damian Penaud, Anthony Jelonch, Peato Mauvaka, Alexandre Roumat, Anthony Belleau, Baptiste Couilloud Romain Buros, Gabriel N’Gandebe, Emerick Setiano and Judicael Cancoriet to name a few.

This was a team that had defeated eventual world champions England 41-17 a few weeks earlier in the Six Nations but come the tournament they were fractionally off, a tad unlucky, and that was that. Perhaps that experience, in the longer term, was more valuable than sweeping to victory? That’s the intrigue and beauty of this tournament.