New Zealand Under 20s play Ireland tonight. Photo / Getty
These New Zealand Under 20s are worth a watch if you can pull yourself away from the laborious Lions or the cats flying around Bermudan waters.
They play with an unfettered, unshackled style of running rugby that has rocketed them into Tuesday's World Rugby Under 20 Championship semifinals in Georgia.
Ireland, the latest roadkill, brought little breadth to their game, losing lock Gavin Coombes to the bin for tripping, and they could not even post any points when New Zealand were reduced to 13 men when locks Isaia Walker-Leawere and Sam Caird were yellow-carded for cynical play. The ghosts of 2016 are well and truly exorcised.
For all New Zealand's brilliance on attack, however, which saw wing Caleb Clarke record a tasty hat-trick, as did fullback Will Jordan, the foundation of their game was defensive intensity, which underlines their tightness as a group. They simply harassed and harried the Irish into errors.
Even in the final seconds, replacement prop Pouri Rakete-Stones made a desperate trysaving tackle in the corner which summed up the hard-nosed attitude.
Whenever New Zealand won the turnover, the likes of pocket dynamo hooker Asafo Aumua carved metres straight up the middle or Walker-Leawere would unleash an offload. That freed space for men such as centre Braydon Ennor, thriving in midfield combination with Orbyn Leger, to break on the outside with his speed, feeding his hungry wings. Some of the passing under pressure and offloading was of the highest standard.
