Japan promoted to Junior World Cup for 2015

A roundup on the final day of Junior World Rugby Trophy for 2014, where Japan after 3 previous losses in the final finally gained promotion to the Junior World Cup for 2015.

7th Place Playoff
Hong Kong 30-33 Canada

The tournament was already a disaster for Canada regardless of this game, but the disaster got worse as they nearly lost to Hong Kong, the weakest side at the tournament. Hong Kong in fact led 21-7 just before half time with Canada down to 14 men through a red card, and it looked like there could be an upset as the underdogs still had a 30-19 lead going into the later stages of the match but Canada managed to escape with two converted tries in the 70th and 72nd minute of the match.

To go from 2nd last year and nearly getting promotion for the Junior World Cup, back down to 7th and nearly losing to Hong Kong is quite some drop for Canada. In hindsight it's perhaps best this group didn't get exposed to the likes of the All Blacks, England and Springboks youngsters after all.

5th Place Playoff
Georgia 46-17 Namibia
This tournament will be one of immense frustration for Georgia, after being stuck on 3 tries in their wins over Tonga and Hong Kong and losing to a late try to the USA by 1 point, they were ever so close to the final yet finish in the 5th place playoff. But in this playoff they raced to a 26-0 half time lead and became the only side in the tournament to score over 40 points in a game, if only they got a scoreline like this in the last game and they would have been playing Japan not Namibia.

3rd Place Playoff
 USA 26-25 Uruguay
If the tournament was played under a French bonus points system, this would have been the final and particularly Uruguay who were unbeaten going into the match will be disappointed they weren't playing in the later game. This was a closely fought game, with unusually the team that scored 4 tries 1 losing as the USA kicked 7 penalties to win.

Although it was a disappointing end for los Teritos, they did beat the eventual winners and still had one of their most successful tournaments in recent times. The South Americans have been overperforming in this tournament relative to their senior national teams position, this is the second year in a row a South American has been ranked in the top 16 in the world at U20 level after Chile finished 3rd last year.

Final
Tonga 10-35 Japan
This was a dubious final in terms of both being the best teams at the tournament considering previous results, and if we're being honest a match that was to decide only who got the dubious honour of being thrashed in the Junior World Cup next year which would likely happen to all these sides. There was no real standout team in this tournament, any of about 4 sides could have feasibly won it, however Tonga's presence in the final looked ever more incongruous considering this was the second handy beating they took in the tournament after Georgia beat them 34-10 in the opening round.

Japan may finally won the JWRT in their 4th final after 3 consecutive 2nd place finished between 2010 and 2012 , but they will need to improve next year to have some respectability in the Junior World Cup. They got through thanks to scoring dozens of tries, but they also conceded a fair few too, losing to Uruguay and only narrowly beating Namibia, opposition will be much tougher next year.

Unfortunately the JRFU may see this tournament, where there was far from conclusive evidence they were best team, as vindication for the pummelling they took in the Pacific Rugby Cup beforehand and may repeat it next year.

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Tournament stats:

Biggest Win:

37-0:  USA v Hong Kong | 46-17:  Georgia v Namibia

Leading Try Scorers:

4:  Vakhtang Amiranashvili,  German Kessler | 3: 5 players

Leading Point Scorers:

63:  Revaz Jinchvelashvili | 58:  Ben Cima | 40:  Chris Arries | 39:  Rikiya Matsuda

Most Cards:

Yellow (2):  Giorgi Margveliani,  Zhora Mgebrishvili | Red (1):  Nathan Yanagiya

Youngest Players:

16:  Jack Combes | 17:  Kevin Field,  Siaosi Tonga,  Hanco Germishuys + 4 others