Rugby: Baby Blacks open world title defence with romp over Japan

  • 31/05/2018

Titleholder New Zealand sounded a warning to their rivals at the World Rugby U20 Championship, with a massive 67-0 win over Japan in their tournament opener in France.

The Baby Blacks needed less than a minute to challenge the scoreboard, as lock Will Tucker charged over for the opening try.

There would be 10 more tries scored, six converted by first-five Kaleb Trask, with wing Jamie Spowat achieving a second-half hat-trick and Leicester Faingaanuku crossing twice on the other flank.

New Zealand scored three tries to lead 17-0 in the opening 10 minutes and enjoyed a 38-0 advantage at halftime.

"I think we'll be very happy with that," said flanker and captain Tom Christie. "We brought players over here with amazing skillsets and that showed tonight.

"It was very, very tough out there, probably tougher than it looked. They did a lot of things well, which really challenged us.

"The Japanese were a classy outfit and really brought it to us in a couple of areas of the game. Their driving maul was really difficult to stop and their level of skill at the breakdown was pretty good as well."

New Zealand won this title last year in Georgia, running away from then-champions England 64-17 in the final. That was their seventh success at this event.

Elsewhere on opening day, the English were the next most impressive winners, overcoming Argentina 39-18, while Wales - New Zealand's next opponents - edged Australia 26-21.

Italy scored an injury-time try to beat Scotland 27-26, South Africa held off Georgia 33-27, while France rallied from 17-5 down at halftime to beat Ireland 26-24.

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