New Zealand U20 - Time to stop England & SA

The Baby Blacks are determined to not be outmuscled again as they look to end a three-year drought at the Junior World Championship. 

South Africa and England have dominated the tournament in the last few years as the power of their forward packs has proved to be decisive. 

Understandably the New Zealand coach Scott Robertson is keen to address that flaw in New Zealand’s game. There’s no doubt the side will be one of the favourites to win outright if they can improve their pack when you consider the quality of players like Akira Ioane, Tevita Li and Otere Black who are all in the squad. 

Giving lots of attention to the set-piece, Robertson outlined the work that had been done by the coaching staff to get the side ready for this year’s tournament. 

"The guys physically are in better condition than we have been, size wise, strength wise, and we've put a lot of technical focus into [the set piece] with Jase Ryan as scrum coach along with Mike Cron,” Robertson told Stuff.

"We've done a lot of work right back from November on the guys having the clarity of how to to deal with that pressure, and more importantly, not just the skill execution but the decision making in it as well.

"We're working on having, almost that Victor Matfield mindset of being really dominant and owning the lineout. They're big boys, units, do the simple things well and have big men lifting them."