World Rugby Junior World U20 Championship Kicks Off on Saturday in Georgia
The newly formatted World Rugby U20 Championship (JWC) kicks off this coming Saturday in Georgia. It has been expanded to 16 teams, it includes the 12 from last year, and four new teams, Fiji, USA, Japan, Uruguay. Fiji qualified as the 12th place team in JWC 2024, USA, Japan, Uruguay qualified as the top finishers, 2 to 4, from the 2024 JWRT Tier 2 competition. Scotland won the 2024 JWRT and were already promoted to the JWC in 2025.
Canada are out of the picture, they didn’t qualify for JWRT 2024 as they lost to USA. Canada will enter the World Rugby U20 Challenger Cup being held in Chile in October with teams from Belgium, Hong King China, Brazil, Namibia, Portugal, Romania and Chile. There’s no word yet on how the promotion/relegation works between the Championship and Challenger series. It looks like the games will be available in Canada on TSN or outside of Canada on rugbypass.tv
JWC Pools
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Pool A
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Pool B
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Pool C
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Pool D
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South Africa
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New Zealand
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Argentina
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France
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Wales
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Italy
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England
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Australia
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Georgia
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Scotland
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Ireland
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Spain
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Uruguay
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Japan
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United States
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Fiji
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JWC Schedule
- 13:00: Italy vs Scotland (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 13:00: Argentina vs United States (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 15:30: New Zealand vs Japan (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 15:30: England vs Ireland (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: Wales vs Georgia (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: France vs Fiji (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: South Africa vs Uruguay (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: Australia vs Spain (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 13:00: Wales vs Uruguay (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 13:00: France vs Spain (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 15:30: Argentina vs Ireland (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 15:30: Australia vs Fiji (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: New Zealand vs Scotland (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: England vs United States (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: South Africa vs Georgia (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: Italy vs Japan (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 13:00: New Zealand vs Italy (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 13:00: Ireland vs United States (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 15:30: Scotland vs Japan (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 15:30: Argentina vs England (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: South Africa vs Wales (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: France vs Australia (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: Georgia vs Uruguay (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: Spain vs Fiji (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
Knockout Stage
Sunday, 12 July 2026 (Semi-finals)
- 18:00: 14th Seed vs 15th Seed (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: 6th Seed vs 7th Seed (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: 13th Seed vs 16th Seed (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: 5th Seed vs 8th Seed (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: 10th Seed vs 11th Seed (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: 2nd Seed vs 3rd Seed (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: 9th Seed vs 12th Seed (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: 1st Seed vs 4th Seed (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: Fifteenth-place play-off (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: Seventh-place Final (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: Thirteenth-place play-off (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: Fifth-place Final (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 18:00: Eleventh-place Final (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 18:00: Third-place play-off (Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi)
- 20:30: Ninth-place Final (Aia Arena, Kutaisi)
- 20:30: Tournament Final (Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi)