Under-19 World Championship - Day 1 Results
The International Rugby Board's Under- World Championship started in Belfast on Wednesday when the Pool B teams in action.
There are sides that have already made their intentions clear - they are available for promotion to Pool A next year.
The match reports are provided by the IRB.
Tonga vs Uruguay, 36-5
With both sides looking for promotion to Division A of the IRB Under-19 World Championship 2007 this match was always likely to be a physical encounter between two powerful sides and it was the beaten 2006 Division B finalists, Tonga, who proved the stronger of the two.
The better of the opening exchanges went to Tonga and they scored the first points of the match. Tongan scrum half Sekope Maea forced a defending line out for Uruguay, but hooker Pablo Ruffalini was penalised for a crooked throw. Following strong defence by the South Americans, Tonga forced a penalty from which Sione Toke opened the scoring when he converted an easy three points.
Despite Tonga having the better of the game at this point, it was Uruguay who scored the opening try. After a mistake by Tonga flank Constantin Kauvaka, Manuel Sagarra collected the ball and ran over in the corner.
Their lead, however, didn't last long. After a Uruguayan handling error Tonga hooker Lepaola Taueli ran in a try from the 22 metre line. The try went unconverted but Tonga upped the anti to take a five point lead.
Successive penalties from Tongan full back Sione Toke took them further ahead and after a second try courtesy of a pulsating counter attack culminated in a fine finish from wing Pauni Atiola. A penalty kick from Sione Toke then extended Tonga's lead to 23-5 at half-time.
Juan Manuel Gaminara, a replacement Uruguayan flank, was sent off for a head butt in the second half which added to Tonga's dominance and meant that there was no coming back for the South Americans.
Tonga then added one extra try to their tally courtesy of a second touch down by Pauni Atiola, to wrap up a match for the Pacific Islanders in which Uruguay had threatened early on, but ultimately succumbed to Tonga's superiority in all facets of the game.
After the match Martin Mendaro, Uruguay coach said: "We couldn't keep the ball. Every time we were in contact with them they were bigger and stronger than us."
Angus Naupoto, Tonga coach said: "It is very important to have a first win in the tournament as we've had our problems off the pitch in the build up. We have to work on our ball control and probably our aimless kicking, which was evident at times."
Scorers:
For Tonga:
Tries: Taueli 2, Sete 2
Cons: Toke 2
Pens: Toke 4
For Uuruguay:
Try: Sagarra
Teams:
Tonga: 15 Sione Toke, 14 Pauni Atiola, 13 William Takai, 12 Mahe Fangupo, 11 Salesi Sete, 10 Richard Kaufusi (captain), 9 Sekope Maea, 8 Sione Kalamafeni, 7 Constantin Kauvaka, 6 Inoke Taufa, 5 Tevita Tangi, 4 Finau Tupa, 3 Sila Puafisi, 2 Lepaola Taueli, 1 Viliami Pola.
Replacements: 16 Maleko Latu, 17 Isileli Vaka'uta, 18 Salesi Veikune, 19 Fransis Penitani, 20 Mateo Malupo, 21 Sione Katoa, 22 Simote Langi
Ururguay: 15 Jeronimo Etcheverry, 14 Tomas Jolivet, 13 Leandro Leivas, 12 Adrian Lewis, 11 Manuel Sagarra, 10 Eduardo Nin, 9 German Albanell, 8 Matias Fonseca (captain), 7 Juan Pablo Pereira, 6 Juan Ormaechea, 5 Agustin Bordaberry, 4 Francisco Vilaseca, 3 Rafael Tchilingirbachain, 2 Juan Pablo Ruffalini, 1 Juan Verde.
Replacements: 16 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 17 Federico Perez, 18 Ignacio Inchausti, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Francisco Vecino, 21 Santiago Gibernau, 22 Alejandro Nieto
Referee: Philip Bosch (South Africa)
Touch Judges: Julian Pritchard (Australia), Alan Falzone (Italy)
Chile vs Cook Islands, 29-14
Chile's powerful pack proved too strong for the Cook Islands, who defended bravely on their IRB Under-19 World Championship debut at Queen's in Belfast but lost 29-14 in a closely fought Division B match on Wednesday 4 April.
The South American side started the match the stronger, spending a lot of time in the Cook Islands' 22, and where rewarded when hooker Jose Santander went over for the first score of the match after a great break by flank Felipe Yaconi, who produced an strong all-round performance.
Chile continued to be the stronger team throughout much of the first half and went in at the break leading 12-0 after wing Francisco Metuaze finished well. However, the Cook Islands got into the game towards the end of the half gaining some territory of their own, with full back Terry Toki making some strong runs through Chile's back line.
Only two minutes into the second half Cook Islands' captain Henry Strickland received a red card, but the debutants were valiant as ever and went on to score their first points of the tournament when second row Norman Heather touched down following a prolonged period of pressure.
The match was a close affair until the final whistle with two late tries for Chile by Patricio Valladares and Yaconi making the score look more comfortable. The Cook Islands though had the final say with Heather scoring his second try of the match.
Henry Strickland, the Cook Island captain, was given a red card.
Afterwards the Chile captain Benjamin Del Solar said: "Winning is a plus, but we have a lot more to show."
Cook Islands coach Ioaba Ezekiela said: "Give credit to Chile, they were well structured but give a lot of credit to my team as well."
Scorers
For Chile:
Tries: Santander, Metuaze, Schachner, Valladares, Yaconi
Cons: Gonzalez 2
Pens:
For Cook Islands:
Tries: Heather 2
Cons: Toki 2
Teams:
Chile: 15 Tomas Smits, 14 Francisco Metuaze, 13 Francisco de la Fuente, 12 Ricardo Sifri, 11 Diego Schachner, 10 Francisco Gonzalez, 9 Alonso Oliver, 8 Fabio Rodriguez, 7 Felipe Yaconi, 6 Benjamin Del Solar (captain), 5 Tomas Dahmen, 4 Nicolas Lafrentz, 3 Luka Salamunic, 2 Jose Santander, 1 Alejandro Rios.
Replacements: 16 Matias Prado, 17 Ignacio Alvarez, 18 Patricio Valladares, 19 Max Rochette, 20 Juan Jose Ruiz, 21 Matias Hojas, 22 Sebastian Aviles
Cook Islands: 15 Terry Toki, 14 Eddy Nicholas, 13 Terua Tuisovivi, 12 Ced Toru, 11 Junior Napara, 10 Roney Maui, 9 Sean Fletcher, 8 Patella Tou, 7 Papa Mataroa, 6 Aka Matapo, 5 Metua Tuare, 4 Norman Heather, 3 Tara Metuariki, 2 Henry Strickland (captain), 1 Tupou Faireka.
Replacements: 16 Louis Mokoroa, 17 Fred Enoka, 18 Tony Moeauri, 19 Tepou Nipurahi, 20 Jack Petero, 21 Tahiri Elikana, 22 Mana Pureau
Referee: James Bolabiu (Fiji)
Touch judges: Matt Stanish (New Zealand), Richard Kerr (Ireland)
Italy vs Chinese Taipei, 62-6
Italy got their IRB Under-19 World Championship 2007 campaign off to a flying start with a 62-6 victory over a spirited Chinese Taipei at Malone. The Italians weren't able to repeat their score of 107-0 from 2006, but scored ten tries in their victory.
Italy led 33-3 at half time after their superior pace and handling skills put Chinese Taipei under severe pressure and it took only three minutes before centre Roberto Quartaroli ran in their first try.
The Italians posted four more tries in the first half and seemed to be heading for a high scoring win which they comfortably achieved.
The second half was a different story however as Chinese Taipei came back into the game and were unfortunate not to score a try. They were, however, rewarded with a penalty in each half from their flyhalf Wei-Fan Lu.
As the Chinese Taipei players chased that elusive try Italy were able to break away and add four further tries to make the score line more one sided.
Flyhalf Riccardo Bocchino had a very comfortable night, in which he controlled the game and led the scoring with 17 points made up of a try and six conversions
It was a bumper night for the Italian forwards who provided the platform for their team's victory and many found themselves on the score sheet.
Hooker Tommaso D'Apice, prop Massimiliano Ravalle, second rows Alex Leo, Alberto Cazzola and Lorenzo Puliti all scored tries in a proud night for the tight five.
Also getting amongst the scorers were captain Simone Favoro and replacements Elia Violi and Giacomo Sala.
Afterwards Italy player, Alex Leo said: "Scoring nine tries is good for our first game that they are spread throughout the team is good to see. It is a team game at the end of the day."
Chinese Taipei team manager Fu-Jen Su said: "We were quite pleased with this result given last year's defeat. Our defence has improved, but we may need to work on our kicking game for next time."
Scorers
For Chinese Taipei:
Pens: Wei-Fan Lu Pen 2
For Italy:
Tries: Quartaroli, Ravalle, D'Apice, Favaro, Sala, Puliti, Bocchino, Cazzola, Violi, Leo
Teams:
Chinese Taipei: 15 Jui-Lin Chang, 14 Chung-Wei Chou, 13 I-Jen Chen, 12 Chih-Wei Chu, 11 Chen-Wen Li, 10 Wei-Fan Lu, 9 Hao-Ming Chen, 8 Cheng-Yang Chen (captain), 7 Chun-Chieh Chiu, 6 Chun-Wei Szu, 5 Wei-Chu Lin, 4 Cheng-Wei Chang, 3 Wen-Lin Liu, 2 Tung-Yang Wu, 1 Jung-Chieh Chang
Replacements: 16 Chao-Wei Guo, 17 Wei-Ting Chen 18 Che-Yen Liu, 19 Wei-Cheng Cheng, 20 Chia-Yu Tai, 21 Chung-Yu Huang, 22 Hao-i Lee, 23 Kai-Chun Tsai
Italy: 15 Marcello Magri, 14 Francesco Fiorani, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Giovanni Massaro, 11 Giuseppe Sapuppo, 10 Riccardo Bocchino, 9 Luca Martinelli, 8 Rudolph Mernone, 7 Simone Favaro (captain), 6 Lorenzo Puliti, 5 Alberto Cazzola, 4 Alex Leo, 3 Massimiliano Ravalle, 2 Tommaso D'Apice , 1 Andrea De Marchi
Replacements: 16 Gabriele Morelli, 17 Lorenzo Sebastiani, 18 Elia Violi, 19 Giacomo Sala, 20 Alberto Chiesa, 21 Edoardo Rotella, 22 Mattia Locatelli
Referee: Joao Mourinha (Portugal)
Touch judges: Dean Richards (England), Laifaga Unasa (Samoa)
Georgia vs Romania, 28-0
The meeting of Romania and Georgia in Division B at the IRB Under-19 World Championship 2007 at Bangor on Wednesday 4 April emerged as an old school battle of the forwards, especially at set play and breakdown time.
The game began brightly with a try from Georgian flyhalf Lasha Khmaladze, which was converted by centre Beka Tsiklauri, and indeed the score could have increased soon after but for a forward pass.
The mid part of the half was dominated by the Romanian determination to run the ball no matter what area of the pitch they found themselves in, though it was ultimately to their detriment.
A series of tapped penalties in their own 22 prevented them from gaining the ground they perhaps deserved.
Soon after Khmaladze made the Romanian decision-making pay as he cut a gap just inside their 22, found his way through two tackles and offloaded to centre Giorgi Svandize, who scored under the posts leaving the half time score at 14-0 in Georgia's favour.
Georgia picked up in the second half where they left off in the first and after a fine charge from number 8 and captain Archil Kobauri and a series of pick and goes by the pack, a penalty for killing the ball was awarded in front the posts.
Tsiklauri's seemingly fine kick caught the wind and struck the upright. The ball, however, fell to Khmaladze, who must have thought he was over in the corner only to be stopped by fine Romanian defending. Georgia subsequently spun the ball wide and finished off in the opposite corner by Kobauri with Tsiklauri converting the try.
Georgia took a strong hold of the game in the remaining minutes and the abilities of both Khmaladze and Tsiklauri shone through as either first or second receiver and it was the latter who fed a pass to fellow Svandize who, after a five yard maul, drove over for the final try.
A strong performance from Georgia stands them in good stead for their next fixture against Zimbabwe, while top seeds Romania, relegated from Division A last year, will aim to bounce back in a difficult encounter against the USA on Easter Sunday.
Afterwards the Georgia try scorer Lasha Khmaladze: "The Internet gave us the opinion that we would face a much stronger opposition. We were able to score a lot more points than we thought."
Georgia assistant coach Zurab Amonashvili said: "It was our first game and we were a little bit nervous but we are on our way to restoring ourselves in Division A"
Romania coach Alexander Achim said: "We were very weak and I am not satisfied with the performance. It's quite hard to build a team after such a defeat, but we will try to do as best we can. We congratulate the Georgian team for the way they played the game."
Scorers:
For Georgia:
Tries: Khmaladze, Svandize 2, Kobauri
Teams:
Romania: 15 Danut Prescura, 14 Viorel Zamfir, 13 Ionel Cazan, 12 Georgel Catuna, 11 Madalin Lemnaru, 10 Alexandru Voicu, 9 Valentin Ivan (captain), 8 Alexandru Valcu, 7 Bogdan Petreanu, 6 Alexandru Mitu, 5 Cristian Munteanu, 4 Remus Necula, 3 Catalin Graur, 2 Florin Enache, 1 Raducu Zaharia
Replacements (from): Alexandru Braileanu, Marian Panzaru, Ciprian Boca, Sergiu Ursache, Alexandru Beldean, Lucian Morosan, Vlad Marian, George Tanasescu, Adrian Maftei, Ionut Panturu, Vasile Cioara
Georgia: 15 Vakhtang Kavtidze, 14 Michael Tsiklauri, 13 Giorgi Svandize, 12 Beka Tsiklauri, 11 Alexander Tuchashvili, 10 Lasha Khmaladze, 9 George Rokhvadze, 8 Archil Kobauri (captain), 7 David Chichua, 6 Vakhtang Mdzinarishvili, 5 Tornike Dzagnidze, 4 Giorgi Kalmakhelidze, 3 George Jashitashvili, 2 Beka Skhulukhia, 1 George Tsirekidze
Replacements: 16 Irakli Mirtskhulava,17 Revazi Basilashvili, 18 Viktor Kolelishvili, 19 Vasil Kakovin, 20 Zakaria Zirakashvili, 22 Rati Nutsubidze
Referee: Javier Mancuso (Argentina)
Touch judges: Neil Paterson (Scotland), Phil Smith (Canada)
USA vs Russia, 6-0
Russia and the USA played out a low scoring, yet entertaining match, at Malone on the first day of the IRB Under-19 World Championship 2007 with the USA coming away with the win 6-0.
A large crowd was present to show their support for USA coach Will Thompson who originally hails from Portavogie, Northern Ireland. Both sides received plenty of vocal encouragement as they sought to play running rugby.
Russia pushed the USA line hard in the opening minutes, but it was the USA who earned the reward as they broke into the Russian twenty-two for the first time and received a penalty straight in front of the posts. Flyhalf Hamish Roberts made no mistake as he struck the ball sweetly between the uprights.
At 3-0 the Russians spurned a scoring opportunity as they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. A delay in finding a kicking tee meant that the fly half had to attempt a drop goal which he pushed to the right of the posts.
The only other score of the half, and indeed the game, came from another penalty after twenty minutes as Roberts struck again.
In the second half neither team could find a way through vigorous defences as they chased the elusive try. The Russians came close on a number of occasions, especially near the end as the right wing Alexy Andreev used his pace to test the USA defence.
With the game so close nerves were fraught as both sides struggled to keep the ball in their hands, but despite a spirited Russian fight back it was USA who took the points from the game.
Afterwards the USA coach Will Thompson said: "There was plenty of heart in our performance today, but we have to work on keeping the ball in our hands and putting points on the board."
"Next time we will be looking to put in a more all round performance and hopefully that will make the finish less nerve wracking"
The USA captain Scott Lavalla said: "We are pleased that we got the win today despite the performance, at the end of the day a win is a win. The first game in the tournament is always the hardest, I broke my neck last year so I am just glad to get through the game and come away with the win."
Scorers
For USA:
Pens: Roberts 2
Teams:
Russia: 15 Vasily Sizykh, 14 Marat Abdullin, 13 Timur Temiev, 12 Sergey Gavryushin, 11 Alexey Andreev, 10 Iustin Petrushka, 9 Gleb Babkin, 8 Roman Timofeev, 7 Pavel Dmitriev, 6 Andrey Gas, 5 Ilya Osminko, 4 Ivan Sysoev, 3 Gennady Berezhnov, 2 Sergey Chernyshev, 1 Yladimir Voronin
Replacements (from): Mikhail Chechetkin, 17 Alexey Pivovarow, Sergey Malikov, Valery Klimenko, Dmitry Gerasimov, Alexey Arnautov, Andrey Lubkov, Alexey Tolstykh, Valentin Yusim,Ruslan Fralkov, Andrey Kuleshin
USA: 15 Nate Ebner, 14 Adam Ducoing, 13 Hoseki Kofe, 12 Nick Johnson, 11 Zach Test, 10 Hamish Roberts, 9 Sean Treacy, 8 Taylor Mokate, 7 Ryan Roundy, 6 Liam Murphy, 5 Scott Lavalla (captain), 4 Garrett Lambert, 3 Nicholas Cook, 2 Bill Wynne , 1 Stevie Johnston
Replacements (from): Zach Heath, Shawn Pittman, Kyle Toombs Kevin Erskine, Austin Cella Gareth Jones, Travis Benson, Jack Tracy James Jewison Eric West, Simon Kinet
Referee: Jerome Garces (France)
Touch judges: James Jones (Wales), Kyosuke Toda (Japan)
Canada vs Zimbabwe, 8-0
Canada made the best possible start to their IRB Under-19 World Championship 2007 campaign with an 8-0 win over Zimbabwe in what was a low scoring yet very physical Division B match at Queen's in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The match was dominated by both packs who cancelled each other out on many occasions with their powerful running and fierce tackling, and it took until the last play of the first half for the first points of the match.
Nathan Hirayama slotted a penalty from in front of the posts, the Canadian flyhalf went on to have a strong game, controlling territory well with his boot and distributing the ball to the rest of his back line when he got the chance.
The Canadian backs looked dangerous when they did receive the ball and this was highlighted 10 minutes into the second half when Hirayama got the ball out wide for wing Kyle Buckley to run in from 15 metres.
Although Hirayama missed the kick this score proved crucial as it put Canada more than a score in front. Zimbabwe fought hard to get back into the game and went close on several occasions but just couldn't put the finishing touches to some well-worked moves.
Some dropped passes and excellent defence from the Canadian forwards left the Zimbabwe team leaving the match, which was watched by an excited crowd with sections cheering on each country, without scoring.
Canada will now look to build on this win and continue on their good start to the tournament against Romania on Easter Sunday, while Zimbabwe will look towards Georgia hoping to get their first win.
Afterwards the Canada captain Sean White said: "Everyone is feeling tight after that game. It was a hard match which could have gone either way, thankfully it went our way. We'd have liked to have a bigger margin of win but at the minute we're just happy to get that W [win]."
Canada coach Gary Johnston said: "I wasn't really pleased with the result. I was hoping to get the extra point with more tries but that was never going to happen with the way Zimbabwe played. Now we're going to look towards Russia in four days time."
The Zimbabwe captain Andrew Rose said: "We're disappointed as most people would be after a loss. It's our first match together so hopefully we can build from here. But we'll play each game as it comes, not look too far forward and see what happens."
Scorers
For Canada:
Try: Buckley
Pen: Hirayama
Teams:
Zimbabwe: 15 Tichafara Makwanya, 14 Raymond de Jong, 13 Christopher Hulley, 12 Barry Mansfield, 11 Rangarirai Zembe, 10 Ryan Manyika, 9 Lloyd Swift, 8 Daniel Nicholls, 7 Michael Todd, 6 Andrew Rose (captain), 5 Andre Odendaal, 4 Orry Pearce, 3 John Raynor, 2 Benjamin Mavros, 1 Kudzaishe Moyo
Replacements (from): Farai Mapunde, Tinashe Bopoto, Nkosana Kunene, Christopher Dryburgh, Dylan Bradshaw, Mufaro Musara, Tanaka Chamunokara, Allan Kennedy, Shaun Neal, Robert Lee-Webb, Tapuwanashe Chitima
Canada: 15 Harry Jones, 14 Jordan Wilson-Ross, 13 Matt Evans, 12 Michael Scholz, 11 Kyle Buckley, 10 Nathan Hirayama, 9 Sean White (captain), 8 Thyssen de Goede, 7 Keegan Selby, 6 Ian Manly, 5 Richard Andrews, 4 Thomas Schwitzer, 3 Mauro Perizzolo, 2 Ryan Hamilton, 1 Russell Ward
Replacements (from): Kyle Leclerc, Jeff Campbell, Luke Racine, Seb Pearson, Mike Berry, Benz Henrikson, Scott Manning, Andrew Tiedemann, Matt Mosby, Jamie Mackenzie, Jesse McConney
Referee: Sarah Corrigan (Australia)
Touch judges: David Keane (Ireland), Peter Ferguson (Ireland)