The U20 Junior World Championship Reaches Final Round: What’s in Store for Canada U20 in 2026
The U20 World Championships wraps up on Saturday with the semi-final rounds completed today. The World Rugby report is below, basically NZ and South Africa will meet in the final. Spain and Ireland will compete in the 11th place playoff, normally that would mean one of them would be relegated but not this year because the U20 Tier 2 competition is in flux and there was no JWRT this year. We’ll also look at what’s in store for the U20 Tier 2 competition next year and where Canada fits in. We finish with some comments from Karl Fix who took a U18 team to Germany this year and plans on taking a U19 team to Argentina next year.
World Rugby Report on JWC U20 Semi-Finals Today
New Zealand and South Africa will meet in a World Rugby U20 Championship final for the first time since 2012 after ending the title hopes of France and Argentina respectively in Italy on Monday.
The World Rugby U20 Championship 2025 final on Saturday in the Italian city of Rovigo will be between New Zealand and South Africa, a repeat of the 2012 title decider involving two sides desperate to end a long wait to be crowned champions again on the global stage.
Fans in the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella in Viadana were treated to two enthralling semi-finals on Monday, starting with a repeat of the 2024 battle between France and New Zealand which had yielded an incredible 86 points with Les Bleuets running out 55-31 winners in South Africa.
New Zealand raced out to a 14-0 lead but were reeled back in not once but twice in the first half as France made them pay for 28 missed tackles to only trail by five at the break after Fabien Brau-Boirie’s late slice through the defence.
The second half was a much tighter affair, New Zealand’s defence keeping France at bay for the first 20 minutes before two yellow cards in quick succession looked to open the door for Les Bleuets. However, New Zealand did not concede a point while men down and ultimately ran out 34-26 winners to reach a first final since they won the title for a sixth time in 2017.
South Africa’s wait for a second title is even longer, having won the only previous final between New Zealand and the Junior Springboks on home soil at a sold-out Newlands in 2012. They could not have made a better start against Los Pumitas, centre Albie Bester dotting down in the ninth minute before they claimed the restart and burst down field for lively scrum-half Hassiem Pead to finish off the move.
The lead was 28-3 inside 25 minutes with the Junior Springboks threatening to run away with the match, but Argentina dug in and gave themselves hope just before half-time when number eight Agustín Garcia campos Fiszman powered over the line.
Argentina cut the deficit to 11 points when Timoteo Silva went over, but South Africa were in no mood to allow Los Pumitas any closer with Vusi Moyo kicking two penalties before Bester ran clear for his second of the game to seal a 48-24 victory for his side.
The opening game in Viadana was a tight affair with Wales eager to repeat their U20 Six Nations victory over England. Sion Davies’ try gave Wales a 13-12 lead at half-time, but three tries in an eight-minute spell around the hour mark proved decisive as the outgoing champions cantered to a 51-13 victory that guarantees them a top-six finish in 2025.
England will face Australia in that fifth place play-off in Calvisano, having won their pool meeting 33-30 thanks to a late penalty on 9 July. The Junior Wallabies burst out of the blocks with two tries in the first six minutes against tournament hosts Italy in Verona, Aden Ekanayake and Shane Wilcox setting them on the way to a 44-21 win.
Georgia will face Scotland in the ninth place play-off after proving too strong for Spain in the opening match in Verona, number eight Mikheili Shioshvili scoring a hat-trick as the Junior Lelos’ power told in a 43-12 victory.
Scotland, by contrast, left it late to seal a 22-21 victory at Payanini Center with a last-gasp try by replacement prop Jake Shearer giving them the win over Ireland, who had battled back from 17-7 down. Ireland will now face Spain in the 11th play-off.
Tier 2 U20 in 2026 from World Rugby (article from April 2025)
Chile will welcome some of the world’s best young players as hosts of the World Rugby U20 Challenger Cup 2026, a cross-regional competition featuring a minimum of six teams.
The new tournament will provide a significant boost for rugby in Chile as they continue to build on the men’s national team’s debut at Rugby World Cup 2023 in France, plus the development of their High-Performance Rugby Center (CARR) in Mahuida Park.
With Chile resume their bid to qualify for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 against Brazil in July, the U20 Challenger Cup announcement was made by Chile Rugby at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago on Wednesday.
Joining Raúl Sigren, the Vice-President of Chile Rugby, for the announcement was Minister of Sports Jaime Pizarro, Governor of Santiago Claudio Orrego Larraín, the national director of the Sports Institute Israel Castro, Chile Olympic Committee President Miguel Ángel Mujica and Sudamérica Rugby Vice-President Jorge Pizzaro.
Chile Rugby will provide details on the U20 Challenger Cup participating teams, match schedules and ticket sales in the coming months.
Age-grade rugby remains an important vehicle for global competitiveness. World Rugby continues to consult with national unions and regional associations regarding a possibility to expand the annual World Rugby U20 Championship from 12 to 16 teams from 2026 as part of a wide-ranging review of men’s age-grade competition structures aimed at increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of international rugby.
The World Rugby U20 Championship 2025 will take place in Italy from 29 June to 19 July, but with no U20 Trophy scheduled for this year as the review continues, the U20 Challenger Cup 2026 is being supported by World Rugby to enable teams to access meaningful international competition as regional pathways are finalised.
Nigel Cass, World Rugby’s Chief of Competitions, Performance and Development Manager, said: “We believe this will be an exciting addition to the global U20s calendar in 2026 with some of the world’s best young playing talent assembling in Chile for what promises to be an exciting event in a country that is embracing rugby, growing its fan and player base.”
Raúl Sigren, the Vice-President of Chile Rugby, said: “This is truly a milestone for Chile Rugby and our vision to become the second sport in our country. The confidence and support that World Rugby continuously gives us is vital to achieve this goal. We have an enormous responsibility to deliver a world-class event in 2026 and to consolidate the role that we want to build in this sport.”
Where Does This Leave Canada
Canada travelled to Fiji for the Oceania U20 this year where they did fairly well, defeating Samoa and Tonga and losing to Fiji. Will that happen again in 2026 or will Canada be part of the Challenger Cup in Chile, we don’t know at this point in time. There’s also talk of increasing the JWC to 16 teams from the current 12. So if the JWC increased to 16 and the Challenger was 8, similar to the JWRT, that could mean 24 U20 teams in World Rugby competitions. We’ll wait an see when World Rugby decides to clarify the competition details.
A Chat with Karl Fix
We had a chat with Karl Fix who not only puts together tours at the U18/U19/U20 level, he helps fund them. Rugby Canada have to realize that they need to work with the private sector in advancing rugby in this country. As Karl mentioned he was able to give U18 players a 10 day, 3 match international experience in Germany, for the same cost Rugby Canada was charging for an ID camp in Ontario, “Only a 5 day ID camp which cost players from out west as much as the Howlers 10 day international experience”. The Howlers won 3 games in Germany including a win over the German team, Germany finished 6th in the 2024 U18 Rugby Europe Championships, defeating Romania, finishing ahead of Belgium but losing to Portugal in the 5th/6th match. He now has his sights on a U19 tour to Argentina in 2026.
It’s about long term planning which Karl emphasized when talking about the history of appointments Rugby Canada have made for the men’s national XVs program, “They do not understand the lay of the land here and have no network. Further to that their planning is usually determined by the length of their contract, for the most part about 4 years. Short term business plans in the real world would usually result in bankruptcy! We have kept doing that over and over again. You know what Einstein said about the definition of insanity ( “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”). That describes what we have been doing. Also if you don’t plant saplings you can’t harvest lumber later. Buenos Aires for example has 110 clubs all running age grades from U10 up to numerous senior sides. The reason the Howlers organized a U18 Germany tour this year is only because RC had no viable program.”
Let’s hope 2026 is a good year for the Canadian U18, U19 and U20 teams, let’s hope World Rugby, Rugby Canada, Provincial Unions and the private sector all align dates, communicate, co-operate for the benefit of rugby and the emerging Canadian talent.