It was a case of IRANZ staff coach vs IRANZ graduate coach when New Zealand met England in the final of the Under 20 rugby junior world championship. IRANZ Staff Coach Dave Rennie, coach of the New Zealand Under 20s was up against Mark Mapletoft, IRANZ High Performance Coaches’ Graduate and coach of the England Under 20s. The RFU sent Mark to attend the IRANZ High Performance Coaches Course in July 2007.
After breezing through their pool matches, New Zealand struck tougher opposition in Australia at Tokyo's Prince Chichubi Stadium for their semi final but eventually run out a 31-17 victory against a very solid Australian team. . England rallied to beat South Africa 40-21 in the other semi-final after being down 9-11 at halftime.
During the final the young New Zealanders overcame a sluggish start and physically imposing opponents in Tokyo to win an entertaining match 44-28. By doing so they retain the title won last year in Wales when they tipped aside England 38-3 in the decider.
Aggressive forward play and mighty goalkicking from fullback Tom Homer saw England steal a 6-0 lead before the New Zealanders began to eliminate the errors which plagued their early endeavours.
Dave claims his team did what they needed to do to achieve their goal of retaining ownership of the world title. "It was a big performance from the boys and I'm really rapt for them," he said.
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