World Rugby U20 Championship and Trophy to Return in 2023

For the past three seasons from 2020 to 2022, the news of the world rugby U20 championship has been unfortunate.

All three editions were canceled. But, as per recent speculations, the championship is going to return with all its vigor and strength in 2023 again. As we can see, the floodgates of opportunities for young and talented rugby players are going to open again.

On 22^nd February this year, the International Federation of Rugby has gladly announced that both the men’s World U20 Rugby Trophy and the men's World Rugby U20 Championship will be back again in 2023 according to Asian sports platform Vwin99. For three years, we have not seen any of these two championships happen but from 2023 it will finally return.

It is obvious to mention that the reason for the cancellation of three consecutive tournaments was not for any integral reasons related to the sport but for the ongoing pandemic.

However, things are expected to be much better in 2023 and hence the federation is looking forward to making way for these two very important tournaments once again.

Many popular worldwide U20 competitions have crept into this space in these three years. So definitely the rugby tournaments need a good boost to find their lost strength. For this reason, the World Rugby Federation is looking to work with the unions and regions to financially assist and recognize significant alternatives in the fields. They are speculating that the best ways to do so are to host several regional tournaments. This will stimulate the knack towards the game again. And on top of these, doing so will help to overcome various challenges that the pandemic has imposed on the entire sports sorority worldwide. These regional tournaments will also assist to cope with traveling related complications during these tricky times. All in all, we can say that the world rugby federation is trying its level best to rejuvenate the sport among enthusiastic youngsters and trying to make good ground to showcase their talent to the world.

This announcement from the World Rugby Federation to commence the U20 championships is dedicated to increasing the competitiveness of the sport from the junior level. This will work as the building blocks for the great future stars of Rugby in the coming years. As per the number is concerned, there are more than 1400 active players in this sport including the U20 ones.

The first U20 world championship in rugby was held back in 2008 in Wales. 28 players who have played that inaugural tournament now have the title of being world cup winners under their belt. Some of those stars can be recognized such as Sam Whitelock, second-row for black (2011 and 2015) and Henry Pollard, the fly-half from Springbok (2019).

One more interesting fact is associated with this commencement of rugby U20 championships. That is, 2023 is going to be the 200^th year after the great game of rugby was invented and introduced to the world by William Webb Ellis back in 1823. The simple “catching a ball and running along with it” became famous all around the world day-by-day as players showed a great amount of determination, skill, hard work, and perseverance this game requires.

Quoting the exact words by the Chairman of the World Rugby Federation Sir Bill Beaumont said that the Rugby U20 championships have been a very successful tournament over the years and it created chances for many young talents to flourish in this sport. He also added their committed Rugby players were waiting for the commencement of these tournaments again and finally, they are going to get a chance to play for the trophies.

Back in the last two tournaments held in 2018 and 2019, France won both titles. In this year's competitions as well, they are looking for the most formidable side to beat. They will certainly have the upper hand as France is going to host the Rugby World Cup exactly six months later after the U20 championships.

Scotland is opted to host these championships in 2023. Scotland as a team are also very strong but they have to compete against tough teams such as Uruguay and Portugal in the group stage. We can sense that most of the U20 championship is going to be more interesting than ever.

Final Opinion

The return of the rugby u20 championship is going to add the lost charm to the sport again. Along with the opportunities that the young and talented players are going to get for showcasing their talent, the fans are also going to be more engaged with it.

Conclusively, we can say that there can be nothing better than this news for the whole world rugby fraternity than this.