The World Rugby Under 20 Trophy (known as the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy until 2014) is an international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body,

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

, and is contested by 8 men's junior national teams with an under-20 age requirement. This event replaced the World Rugby's former age-grade world championships, the Under-19 and Under-21 World Championships. The inaugural tournament was held in June 2008, hosted by

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and with 8 teams participating. The World Rugby Under 20 Trophy is the second level of the World Rugby tournament structure for under-20 national sides. At the same time that the Trophy was launched, World Rugby (then known as the International Rugby Board) also launched an upper-level

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

, featuring 16 teams in 2008 and 2009 and a reduced format for 12 teams from 2010 and onwards. Promotion and relegation between the Trophy and the Championship is in place. The winner of the Trophy will play in next year's Championship, while the last placed team at the Championship will be relegated to the Trophy for the next year.

History

The inaugural tournament was held in 2008, hosted by Chile, and won by Uruguay. World Rugby's decision that the United States would host the tournament in 2012 was viewed as the United States taking a step closer towards hosting the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

.ESPN Scrum, USA to host IRB Junior World Trophy, Jan. 29, 2012, http://www.espnscrum.com/irb-juniorworld-2011/rugby/story/158475.html

Tournament results

Team records

;Legend * = Hosts * = Champions (promoted to U20 Championship) * = Champions (not promoted to U20 Championship) * = Runners-up * = Third place * = Fourth place *''WC'' = Competed in the U20 Championship *''q'' = Qualified * — = Did not qualify

References

External links

U20 Trophy: The story so far
at World Rugby {{International rugby union Under 20 Under-20 rugby union competitions