Australian Youth Rugby Championships
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Super Rugby Next Gen, formerly known as Super Rugby U19s,[a] and sometimes referred to as the Australian Youth Rugby Championships, is an Australian rugby union competition for men's youth teams that forms part of the pathway for selection to the Australia under-20 team. The competition is organised by Rugby Australia (RA).
Logo introduced in 2018 | |
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Inaugural season | 2014 (National U20s) |
| Number of teams | 5 |
| Country | Australia |
| Holders | New South Wales (2025) |
| Most titles | New South Wales (4 titles) |
| Broadcast partner | Stan Sport |
| Related competition | Super Rugby |
History
National U20s
The first National U20 Rugby Championship was played in 2014,[1][2] and was contested by teams from New South Wales, Queensland and an Australian Barbarians side (selected from the other states and territories). National under-20 teams from the Pacific islands were also invited to play matches.[3][4]
The competition was played over two stages, with a Southern States U20 Championship held in March for teams from ACT, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, as well as New South Wales Country and Queensland Country.[5] A representative team from that tournament was selected to participate in the National U20 Championship's top division.[6]
Super U20s
The Super Under 20s Championship was launched in 2016, with teams from Australia's five Super Rugby franchises competing.[7] Matches were scheduled as curtain-raisers to home games hosted by the Super Rugby teams, with the tournament played as a single round-robin followed by a final between the top two sides to determine the champion team.[7]
U19s Rugby Championship
In 2018 the competition was changed to an Under-19 championship played six months earlier in the lead in to the Junior Wallabies campaign for the Oceania and World Rugby tournaments.[8]
Teams
The teams playing in the Under-19s Rugby Championship are:
Following the tournament, an initial squad for the Junior Wallabies team is selected from the best players. The Australian team competes in the Oceania U20 and World Rugby U20 championships.
Champions
| Year | # of Teams |
Final | Refs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | |||
| National Under 20s Championship | |||||
| 2014 | 4 | New South Wales  |
round robin |
 Queensland |
[2] |
| 2015 | 5 | New South Wales |
round robin |
Queensland |
[9] |
| Super Under 20s Championship | |||||
| 2016 | 5 | Queensland |
35–5 |  Melbourne Rebels |
[10] |
| 2017 | 5 | Queensland |
49–19 | New South Wales |
[11] |
| U19s Rugby Championship | |||||
| 2018 | 8 | Brisbane City |
41–7 | Queensland Country |
[12] |
| 2019 | 8 | Brisbane City |
43–19 | Sydney |
[13] |
| Tournaments cancelled between 2020–2021 due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.[14] | |||||
| 2022 | 5 | New South Wales |
44–31 | Queensland |
[15] |
| Super Rugby U19s | |||||
| 2023 | 5 | Australian Capital Territory  |
20–12 | New South Wales |
[16] |
| 2024 | 6 | Australian Capital Territory |
40–31 | Queensland |
[17] |
| 2025 | 4 | New South Wales |
31–24 | Australian Capital Territory |
[18] |
| Super Rugby Next Gen | |||||
| 2026 | 4 | TBC | – | TBC | |
See also
Notes
- Between 2023 and 2025.