Kiwis teach Baby Boks a lesson
The IRB Junior World Championship 2010 Final will be between defending champions New Zealand and Australia.
The Trans-Tasman rivals both advanced past the semifinals in convincing fashion - New Zealand teaching South Africa a lesson in play-off rugby, beating them 36-7, while Australia eased past England 28-16.
The Baby Blacks will take on Australia in the Cup Final, while the Baby Boks will now play England in the bronze medal match.
Both games will be played on Monday, June 21.
We look at the semifinal action!
Australia 28 England 16
A great solo try from Kimami Sitauti took Australia into their first ever IRB Junior World Championship final with a convincing defeat of England at the Estadio El Coloso del Parque in Rosario on Thursday.
Australia, the youngest squad in the 2010 tournament in Argentina, were already leading 23-11 when the Sevens star backed himself to score, realising his outside backs had overrun the ball and stepping back inside to ensure the celebrations could begin.
That Matt Toomua missed the conversion did not matter one bit to the Australians with only a couple of minutes remaining, and while half-time replacement Jonny May later powered over for an England try it was nothing more than a consolation score.
Australia had not been as clinical as in their enthralling Pool C decider with South Africa four days ago and the problems they had in the line-outs will cause concern, but their free-flowing style still ended England's hopes of a third successive final.
Australia coach David Nucifora said he was "really pleased" that his team made it through to the final.
"We've at least now given ourselves an opportunity to win it and that's all we came here for. There's a lot of talent in the team, we probably felt we didn't play as well as we should've to be honest and we know if we're going to beat New Zealand in the final we're going to have to play significantly better than what we felt we played."
The scorers:
Australia:
Tries: Toua, Morahan, Sitauti
Cons: Toomua 2
Pens: Toomua 3
England:
Tries: Smith, May
Pens: Homer 2
The teams:
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 Edward Quirk, 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 Lachlan McCaffrey, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Jonathon Lance, 22 Gregory Jeloudev.
England: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Andrew Forsyth, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Sam Smith, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Charlie Davies, 8 Jackson Wray, 7 Jacob Rowan (Captain), 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Charlie Matthews, 4 Calum Green, 3 Shaun Knight, 2 Jamie George, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Arthur Ellis, 17 Lee Imiolek, 18 George Kruis, 19 Will Welch, 20 Sam Harrison, 21 Freddie Burns, 22 Jonny May.
New Zealand 36 South Africa 7
New Zealand's quest for a third successive IRB Junior World Championship title remains on course after they ran out comfortable winners over South Africa in the second semifinal at the Estadio El Coloso del Parque in Rosario.
The 14th consecutive win for New Zealand in the Junior World Championship was never really in doubt after ending the first half with the Baby Blacks leading 22-7, having made the most of their advantage of playing with the wind behind them.
Patrick Lambie, the leading point scorer in the 2010 tournament with 61 points, missed an early penalty attempt for South Africa and Julian Savea made that prove costly within minutes, the wing handing off Branco du Preez before diving to ensure he remained in touch to score the first try.
New Zealand captain Tyler Bleyendaal missed the conversion from the touchline, but having seen Elton Jantjies pull a drop-goal attempt well wide, the flyhalf made no mistake with his next effort to make it 8-0 after 20 minutes.
Lambie missed a second penalty and again within minutes New Zealand made the Baby Boks pay, Tawera Kerr-Barlow taking a quick tap to Bleyendaal, whose long pass gave second row Blade Thomson an easy run in for the second try of the match.
A third try followed just past the half hour mark, No.8 Rory Grice capitalising on the space that opened in front of him after prop Marcel van der Merwe failed to tackle him to charge over, handing off two Baby Boks in the process.
South Africa had struggled to handle the Baby Blacks from the first whistle, but were also guilty of wasting several opportunities with handling errors. However, they finally got on the board in the dying minutes of the first half with a try from Du Preez, the smallest player in the 2010 tournament.
The Baby Boks, who have suffered semifinal heartbreak in the two previous Junior World Championships, may have had the wind in their favour in the second half but they were unable to find a way through - because of handling errors and the resolute New Zealand defence.
Instead it was Bleyendaal who kept the scoreboard ticking over with four penalties, making the Baby Boks pay for their high penalty count, before Savea scored his eighth try of the tournament 10 minutes from time, carrying defenders over the line and again showing great special awareness to dot down before going into touch.
Savea, who had been a doubt in the days leading up the match with the knock he suffered to his hip against Wales, has now matched the eight tries Zac Guildford scored in the 2009 tournament and seems set to follow him into the All Black fold before too long.
New Zealand coach Dave Rennie said he was "really happy" for his boys. "They've put in a lot of hard work and it'll be nice to have a bit of a look against Australia in four days time. We always felt if we could hang onto the ball we could put a lot of pressure onto South Africa, but we weren't clinical enough at times.
"The first 10 was pretty patchy and the next sort of 25 was pretty good but probably for the rest of the game we didn't put the foot on the throat and it was only some scrambling defence that kept them out.
"Julian Savea draws a fair bit of attention but we probably didn't get him enough ball and that was a bit frustrating," he added.
"I think we've got to be mentally tougher, we got off to a good lead and we should have really put them away but we let them hang in there and they scored right on half-time which would have given them a bit of hope going into the second half so that's something we've got to focus on. We were a bit better in keeping possession but we've got to be a lot better against Australia."
The scorers:
New Zealand:
Tries: Savea 2, Thomson, Grice
Cons: Bleyendaal 2
Pens: Bleyendaal 4
South Africa:
Try: Du Preez
Con: Lambie
The 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 Liaki Moli, 4 Blade Thomson, 3 Jeff Allen, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Angus Taavao-Matau.
Replacements: 16 Paul Ngauamo, 17 Willie Ioane Afuvai, 18 Thomas Franklin, 19 Matt Graham, 20 Kayne Hammington, 21 Hayden Parker, 22 Jason Woodward.
South Africa: 15 Patrick Lambie, 14 Wandile Mjekevu, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Branco du Preez, 11 Nico Scheepers, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 CJ Stander (Captain), 7 Fanie van der Walt, 6 Siyamthanda Kolisi, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 4 Kene Okafor, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Monde Hadebe, 1 Brummer Badenhorst.
Replacements: 16 Francois du Toit, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Wessel du Rand, 19 Mlungisi Bali, 20 Lohan Jacobs, 21 Adri Jacobs, 22 Nico Scheepers.