Wales U20 are seeded fourth for the tournament, following Wales U19's semi-final position at last season’s IRB U19 World Championships. This gives them the top spot in Pool D and will be based in Swansea while the other three top seeds are New Zealand U20 (Pool A, Cardiff), South Africa U20 (Pool B, Wrexham) and Australia U20 (Pool C, Newport).

Liberty Stadium, Swansea, will provide Wales U20's match venue for the tournament and the venue of the finals day on June 22nd, 2008. The other match venues will be Cardiff Arms Park, Rodney Parade, Newport and the Racecourse, Wrexham. The Union promised an all-Wales event for the inaugural World Championship at Under 20 level and announced that there will be a comprehensive programme of activity around the tournament which will ensure a lasting legacy to all elements of Welsh rugby, from elite players, coaches and referees to volunteers, players, coaches and administrators in the grassroots game.

The tournament will be used to expose elite, young players in Wales to the high standards practiced by the Under 20 teams visiting the Principality, with a range of coaching clinics and training sessions, while the club and school-based programme of activity around the tournament will benefit the grassroots game across all of Wales. The WRU has gained total agreement from the IRB for its proposed plan for the 2008 tournament, a major element of which was to stage matches and base teams in and around the four regional centres of Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham, turning the all-Wales vision into a reality.

Part of the tournament’s legacy to grassroots rugby will see each of the sixteen participating teams being linked to a specific rugby club. The teams will use the club as their training base but it will also be used as a link between the tournament and the local community. Schools and clubs around that training base will have the chance to get involved with the tournament via the ‘adopted nation’ based at their local club. Youngsters will have the opportunity to watch training sessions, learn about the visiting country and attend matches during the tournament.

The inaugural Junior World Championship has a clear-cut, coherent format which is easy to follow. There are four Pools of four teams, and each team plays the other three teams in its Pool. The winner of each Pool will progress to the semi-finals of the tournament while the other teams will continue to play for Championship positions.

The tournament will benefit from an award of up to £400,000 from UK Sport’s National Lottery backed World Class Events Programme, and is already one of six world championship events secured for the UK in 2008 using UK Sport’s investment and expertise. The WRU has also received significant support in its bid to stage this global tournament from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Since the IRB took control of the old FIRA/AER U19 and Sanzar/UAR U21 championships in the new millennium, the two tournaments have become forerunners to the game’s major tournament, the Rugby World Cup. Springbok Coach Jake White cut his teeth as an international coach in the younger age groups, helping South Africa to win the 1999 Sanzar/UAR U21 title in 1999 before steering his country’s talented youngsters to the inaugural IRB U21 Championship title on home soil in 2002. Five years on, White was re-united with nine of his U21 squad members in France as the Springboks captured the Webb Ellis Cup for the second time with their victory over England in Paris.

Former IRB World Player of the Year, Schalk Burger, played in the 2003 IRB tournament at U21 level in England and featured in a game against a Wales side at Newbury. The ‘Baby Boks’ were 52-21 winners on the day and Burger met up recently with two members of the Wales U21 pack, Rhys Thomas and Luke Charteris, from that game in the first Prince William Cup clash at the Millennium Stadium in November 2007.

Wales hosted the 1999 IRB/FIRA Junior World Cup at U19 level. On that occasion a Welsh side captained by Dragons and Wales lock Adam Jones reached the final after beating England, Argentina and South Africa. Blues fullback Rhys Williams, centre Jamie Robinson, Dragons outside half Ceri Sweeney, Worcester Warriors scrum half Ryan Powell, Scarlets flanker James Bater and Dragons No.8 Michael Owen were all capped from the Wales side, while Dwayne Peel was among the replacements.

New Zealand won the final 25-0 in front of a 12,000 crowd at Stradey Park and had an exceptional side. Jerry Collins was voted ‘Player of the Tournament’, Richie McCaw was in the back row and Mils Muliaina among the back line. Peel also went to the 2000 tournament and a year later it was the turn of the talented Gavin Henson to taste the global scene for the first time. He spearheaded the Welsh charge into the semi-finals of the U19 competition in Chile in 2001 – the fifth time in seven tournaments since their debut in 1995 that Wales had reached the last four. France beat Wales to reach the final, which was won by New Zealand, and the Welsh side went down 43-24 to Australia in the 3rd/4th play-off game.

Wales Coach Pat Horgan will have a talented group of players to take into the inaugural IRB Junior World Championship at U20 level next year. Sam Warburton’s U19 side finished fourth in IRB competition in Belfast last year and will be keen to do well on home soil next summer. A number of that side have already gained Regional experience – Gareth Owen at the Ospreys, Daniel Evans and Jonathan Davies at the Scarlets – and they will be hoping to go one better than Adam Jones’s side of 1999.

Pools for the IRB Junior World Championship: Wales 2008