TRC U20 2026

NZ take advantage of a charge down and breakout for a length of the field try

Sinton at 9 is impressive.

29 all

Micah Fale dropped a bit of weight? Doesn't look as big as he did last year.

A lot of luck involved in those two tries against 13 men.

Mulaina isn't much of a kicker

Well done Logan Williams to make most of the luck and breakout to score a try

34-29 NZ

Woeful kick by Guerin

Australia 10 has a lot of Larkham-ish qualities to his game.

No TMO check for tip tackle.

TMO check for knock on at ruck.

Right.

Australia TH has been destructive all game and still going strong after 75+ mins.

Best passage of defence there by NZ

Some of these bench players are a big improvement on their starting counterparts

NZ win 34-29

What an odd game.

9 times out of 10 Aus win that game.

Fun watch though.

Lucky to win that one. Think Australia dominated most of the game and looked more threatening whenever they had the ball. NZ made the most of the period where they had a 2 man advantage and that was the difference in the end.

Australia were clearly the better team, and should have won it easily. Ill discipline cost them the game. They will be kicking themselves for losing to this poor NZ side.

NZ have probably used up all of their luck in this game. So many missed first-up tackles in the 1st half especially.

Now that they've played a game we should expect to see improvement against Arg.

Did Stan show the post-match interviews? If so, I wonder what both captains had to say?

@Bovidae I don't believe so

How did the players rate for NZ?

@Mr-Fish said in TRC U20 2026:

How did the players rate for NZ?

The 3 standout starters I thought were 6 Finn Mcleod, 9 Sinton and 15 Norrie.

Muliaina was outshone by his opposite but he was tidy - good kicking out of his own half and good decision making.

The bench was good and impactful - bench forwards had more presence, Reihana and Williams definitely showed something too.

Makata, the reserve hooker, never came on. Injured?

@KiwiMurph said in TRC U20 2026:

Pahulu rightly hooked. He cannot tackle.

Is this the guy who missed basically every attempt he had?

I only saw the highlights, but the Aussie team just looked like they have 1) more size, 2) better basic skills (e.g., passing in front of the man), and 3) better individual tackling technique (1& 3 go together a bit).

They look better coached too and their 10 was a much more finished product that Muliaina. I think they were very unlucky to lose that with 3 tries disallowed and a RC?

If that's the best we have, yikes.