Defending champions France have progressed to the semi-finals of the World Rugby U20 Championship after beating Wales 29-11 in South Africa today.
While the French will be strong favourites to defend their title, one particular tactic they used today to combat the kickoff highlighted the absurdity of a new rule World Rugby is trialling.
In a bid to improve the game, World Rugby have been trialling a number of new rules at this year's U20 World Rugby Championship, and while some of them have gone off without a hitch, France's opportunistic use of the new kickoff rule showed that there's still plenty of thinking to be done in World Rugby HQ.
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Opportunistic France highlight issue with new kickoff rule
The rule being trialled amends the current mark rule to include kickoffs. This means the receiving team can call a mark from an opposition restart once they catch the ball inside their own 22.
While these disincentives out halves from sending the ball deep, and theoretically incentivises more contests for short kickoffs - when it doesn't work, it simply doesn't work.
That is exactly what happened in France U20s v Wales when the French caught a kickoff and called the mark, before completing a tap-and-go only to hold onto it and refuse to move outside their 22, allowing them to kick the ball out on the full without penalty. Essentially giving the receiving team rugby's version of a get out jail free card.
France surprise everyone with unorthodox new tactic in World Rugby U20s #WorldRugbyU20s pic.twitter.com/bZI2uJyYBR
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 9, 2024
Regardless of the tactics, France went on to win the game comfortably, 29-11. Meaning they progress to the semi-final stage along with Ireland whose game against Australia was cancelled due to the rain in Cape Town.
Both Ireland and France met in the final of the competition last year, with France getting the upper hand on the Irish U20s on that occasion.
Whether we'll see France utilising some of their unorthodox tactics against the Ireland U20s is yet to be seen, but one thing is certain - World Rugby will have to review their new kickoff rule.
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