The 2022 Oceania Rugby Under 20 Championship gets underway this afternoon on the iconic Sunshine Coast in Australia, Friday 1 July 2022, at 5pm (local time) when New Zealand take on Fiji in the opening match before hosts Australia battle against Argentina.
Follow all the Oceania Rugby U20 Championship action here.
The next generation of rugby stars will take to the field for the first time in over two years following cancellation of the annual tournament due to Covid-19, in 2020 and 2021, with several young Super Rugby talent taking to the field.
New Zealand boosts 5 2022 super rugby debutants lead by Captain George Bell (Crusaders) who is joined by Seb Calder (Crusaders), Fabian Holland (Highlanders), Riley Higgins (Hurricanes) and Ray Tuputupu (Hurricanes).
Fiji Captain Semi Qica of Tailevu will be leading a team heavy wit representation from Suva against against New Zealand including Vilikesa Nairau, Ponipate Naliva, Patemo Nuku, and Benji Baseilala.
Also stepping out for Fiji today are two players back from France for the tournament Jeniro Wakeham (Stade Francais) and Petero Mailulu (Bourdex Begels)
Meanwhile the Australia team includes Daniel Maiava and Lukas Ripley (Rebels), Adrian Brown and Pat Maka (Waratahs), Kalani Thomas, Mac Grealy and Floyd Aubrey (Reds) and Conner Seve (Western force).
Sunshine Coast local Louis Werchon will be looking to make an impact off the bench for the Junior Wallabies in front of his home crowd.
Argentina Captain Mateo Albanese will be leading his team out for the first time at the Oceania event with Tomas Suarez Folch.
On May 12 World Rugby announced new Global law trials which officially commence on 1 July amongst these trials are the brakefoot scrum trial and the revised TMO protocol trial both of these will be in used officially for the first time globally and during the 2022 Oceania Rugby U20 Championship.
Referee Angus Mabey (NZL) will be taking charge of New Zealand v Fiji with David Vosalevu (FIJ) overseeing Australia v Argentina.
The matches will be live on Stan Sport (Australia), Spark Sport (New Zealand) and ESPN (Argentina AL Latam and South America).
Tickets are available via Ticketek.com
2022 Oceania Rugby U20 Championship Schedule (Sunshine Coast Stadium)
Match Round 1: Friday 1 July 2022
- New Zealand v Fiji – kick off 5pm
- Australia v Argentina – kick off 7pm
Match Round 2: Tuesday 5 July 2022
- New Zealand v Argentina – kick off 2pm
- Australia v Fiji – kick off 4pm
Match Round 3: Sunday 10 July 2022
- Fiji v Argentina – kick off 2pm
- Australia v New Zealand – kick off 4pm
All times local
