We take a closer look at the two semi finalists, the teams they
have selected and what the coaches, captains and players have to
say about their must-win encounters if they are to keep alive their
dream of being crowned world champions.
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AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND
Kick-off: 14:10 local time (18:10 UK / 02:10 AUS)
The two nations have met only once before in Junior World
Championship history, a pool decider in the inaugural tournament in
2008 when England came out on top 18-13 thanks to Miles
Benjamin's last gasp winner in Newport.
Australia come into the semi final on a high after an
impressive 42-35 defeat of South Africa in Santa Fe on Sunday to
top Pool C and avoid another semi final against Trans Tasman rivals
New Zealand, who beat them 31-17 in the last four in 2009.
Coach David Nucifora has made only one change to his side
with Nicolas White returning at scrum half, having come on after
only five minutes against the Baby Boks when Justin Turner injured
his knee. Turner has been ruled out of the tournament with call-up
Ian Prior filling the spot vacated by White on the bench.
England, by contrast, have made six changes with coach Mark
Mapletoft recalling captain Jacob Rowan and speedster Christian
Wade after both were rested for the Pool B decider with France. Tom
Homer, the all-time JWC leading point scorer, returns at full back
with the impressive Freddie Burns dropping to the bench.
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Australia coach David Nucifora: I think every team
goes into a tournament like this knowing that if you are going to
win the tournament you have to keep improving. We were happy with a
lot of the things we did in that game, but I think the obvious
things were the points we conceded and how we conceded them after
we had scored points we weren't happy with. We know that we
have still got quite a bit of room to improve on that performance.
We are really only just at the business end of this now so we have
got to keep getting better.
"England pose some similar threats to us as South Africa
did. We are not the biggest and most physical team in this
competition but we have to match up in those areas if we are going
to be able to beat these teams. We have just got to get ourselves
up again for Thursday.
"It was a high scoring game [against South Africa]
because I believe we took the chances that were presented to us.
That was something else that we did quite well. Whether England
present us with that many opportunities I am not sure, but if they
do we have got to be good enough to grab each one of them and then
we can keep pressure on through the scoreboard. If they don't
present that many then we just have to be good enough to grab one
or two and hopefully that is enough to win the game."
Australia captain Jake Schatz: "We'd
always like to do better than what we did last year, so our goal
was to win the tournament this year and making the semis is very
exciting and at the same time we wanna win and we wanna make that
final. It was good to play South Africa in such a way that it
really did test us out a bit but I'm sure the England team will
test us a bit further and hopefully we can take it on.
"We definitely have things to improve on so we
definitely want to step it up and fix those problems that we had in
the game. Certainly we'd like to strengthen our defence, but
just our composure after scoring points really let us down in the
last game, they scored points straight after we had so hopefully we
can fix that up, I'm sure we'll be working on it."
Australia centre Robbie Coleman: "You do take a
lot of confidence out of winning those tough games - especially
South Africa, who we knew were going to bring a lot. Yeah I suppose
it'll give the boys a bit of belief and confidence that we can,
if we play how we train and that, we can go the whole way."
England coach Mark Mapletoft: "They look very
good, I must admit. They were very impressive in their three pool
games I thought, particularly against South Africa. It was a great
game to watch, a lot of tries. But we'll be preparing to win
hte game, naturally, and hopefully we can be a bit more forceful in
defence while still challenging them with the ball in hand.
"We're certainly going to have to try and stop them
playing without a doubt, that doesn't mean we're not going
to play ourselves. They clearly have a lot of strike power but I
think as all teams will do we'll do a bit of analysis.
They'll want to keep playing but at the same time be mindful of
perhaps we're strong and I'm fairly confident the best team
will win. Hopefully it's us, but if it's not then we will
know we've given it our best."
England full back Tom Homer: "I've never
played Australia, I've played South Africa and New Zealand so
obviously it's a new challenge and certainly one I'm
looking forward to. Obviously all southern hemisphere sides are
pretty awesome so I think if we just focus on our own game,
concentrate on what we've got to do then hopefully we should be
all right."
NEW ZEALAND v SOUTH AFRICA
Kick-off: 16:30 local time (07:30 NZ /21:30 SA)
New Zealand as a nation may be yet to lose a match in the history of the Junior World Championship, but Baby Blacks coach Dave Rennie is all too aware of the threat posed by South Africa's Under 20s ahead of their semi final in Rosario.
The two sides, who have never met in the tournament before, have had vastly different journeys to this stage with a slightly older New Zealand side finishing top seed after comfortable wins against Fiji, Samoa and Wales in Pool A.
South Africa, on the other hand, made easy work of their Pool C
matches against Tonga and Scotland but came out on the wrong end of
an enthralling decider against Australia, losing 42-35 to qualify
for the semi finals as the best placed runner up.
Clearly eager to match New Zealand's pace out wide, South
Africa coach Eric Sauls has made just two changes to the side that
started against Australia with Branco du Preez, the shortest player
in the tournament, coming in to the centre and Nico Scheepers
getting his first call up on the wing.
New Zealand have made only three changes to the side that beat
Wales 43-10 with prop Angus Taavao-Matau, number 8 Rory Grice and
centre Star Timu getting starts. The biggest plus for Rennie,
though, is that Julian Savea, the tournament's leading try
scorer with six, has recovered from a knock to his hip in the first
half against Wales.
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VIEW THE STATISTICAL MATCH PREVIEWS >>
New Zealand coach Dave Rennie: "South Africa
pose a lot more problems for us. Obviously they have a very big
pack and they've got a lot of wheels in the backs so you know
they've got the ability to play both those sorts of games. We
won't stray too much from what we've been trying to do, if
we can get some good go forward ball then hopefully we can stretch
them a bit. You've got to front from a set piece point of view
and they're a very good side in that regard.
"The Africans have got a number of really good players.
We're happy with some of our boys who have stepped up and we
certainly have got guys starting in this game who if you'd
asked us maybe five or six weeks ago we would have thought
they'd maybe be bench at best so it's good. We want
competition for places and hopefully that'll help us get a good
performance."
New Zealand captain Tyler Bleyendaal: "South Africa is a big side, a lot of pace and they are going to be a tough team to play against. I guess we are looking forward to the challenge, we can't wait really. Everyone is feeling it at this stage of the tournament, three games gone plus whatever warm up matches, four day turnarounds, every team is going to be sore, you have just got to play off those little niggles. They had a tough match but I am sure they will have no problem fronting up.
"We are going to have to knuckle down and we are going to have to be physical too, we are going to have to match it and just try to dominate as best we can. Take it to them early on and just stay in the fight and keep fighting."
New Zealand prop Willie Ioane: "It's going to be a big, physical game like always and like all the other South African teams they're just going to try and out muscle us and just try and give a head clash and you know the boys are all ready for that, the physical match and we've just got to front up and see how it goes."
South Africa coach Eric Sauls: "It will be
physical with the teams playing, especially with New Zealand and
their experience of being world champions. Certainly I don't
think they will come just to defend the title. It will be a very
tough one, it won't be easy.
"We have to stand up, it was obviously disappointing
after the defeat. We had to pick up the boys. I think it was very
intense, one of the great games, but we made too many mistakes,
especially on defence and we have worked on that."
South Africa centre Jaco Taute: "We want to
focus on what we are going to do so we can control the
controllables and just give our best on the field and bring our
game to the match and see how they respond to us.
"We haven't watched New Zealand in depth so far so
we don't really know about their key players or anything like
that but we are aware New Zealand is a very good team and a very
proud rugby nation. They are ranked number one in the world so we
know we're going to be up against tough competition so
we've prepared very well and I think we are up for the
challenge."
