Baby Blacks are the champions
New Zealand retained the IRB Junior World Championship trophy for the third year in succession after producing a dominant display to beat Australia 62-17 at the Estadio El Coloso del Parque in Rosario on Monday and complete a thrilling tournament.
New Zealand have now won all 15 matches since the Junior World Championship was introduced in 2008, and got off to a flying start as hooker Liam Coltman touched down after just 33 seconds of the final.
Captain Tyler Bleyendaal was the architect of the try, gliding through the Australian defence and led by example with an impressive display, helping to set up two tries for teammates and scoring one of his own in a 28 point haul before limping off just past the hour mark.
"It was important to put Australia on the back foot because they're a great attacking team and you know momentum wins games and we've been guilty of letting teams off. Today [Monday] we definitely focused on keeping our foot on the throat and we did that and we just kept scoring points, it was just a great performance," said Bleyendaal.
The scorers
For New Zealand
Tries: Coltman, Marshall, Veainu 3, Polwart, Bleyendaal
Cons: Bleyendaal 4, Parker 2
Pens: Bleyendaal 5
For Australia
Tries: Morahan, Sitauti
Cons: Toomua 2
Pens: Toomua
Teams
New Zealand: 15 Tom Marshall, 14 Julian Savea, 13 Star Timu, 12 Charlie Ngatai, 11 Telusa Veainu, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal (Captain), 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 8 Rory Grice, 7 Sean Polwart, 6 Luke Whitelock, 5 Blade Thomson, 4 Liaki Moli, 3 Jeff Allen, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Angus Taavao-Matau.
Replacements: 16 Paul Ngauamo, 17 Willie Ioane Afuvai, 18 Thomas Franklin, 19 Richard Haddon, 20 Kayne Hammington, 21 Hayden Parker, 22 Jason Woodward.
Australia: 15 Luke Morahan, 14 Dominic Shipperley, 13 Kimami Sitauti, 12 Robbie Coleman, 11 Aidan Toua, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Nicholas White, 8 Jake Schatz (Captain), 7 Liam Gill, 6 Colby Faingaa, 5 Gregory Peterson, 4 Phoenix Battye, 3 Paul Alo-Emile, 2 Siliva Siliva, 1 Salesi Manu.
Replacements: 16 Samuel Robertson, 17 Cruze Ah-Nau, 18 Luke Jones, 19 Edward Quirk, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Jonathon Lance, 22 Gregory Jeloudev.
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Luis Caviglia (Uruguay)
Assessor: Tappe Henning