{"id":364745,"date":"2025-12-22T15:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364745\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:24:08","slug":"international-rugby-returns-to-famous-english-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364745\/","title":{"rendered":"International rugby returns to famous English venue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Oxford University\u2019s Iffley Road has been chosen as the venue for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> U19 men\u2019s fixture against a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/japan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> National High School team next March.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Mapletoft, the Head of the RFU\u2019s Men\u2019s Player Pathway, will be hoping that more talented youngsters like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/saracens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saracens<\/a> star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/noah-caluori\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Noah Caluori<\/a> will emerge from the match, which will take place on 20 March, kick-off 2pm.<\/p>\n<p>Major international touring teams, such as the Springboks, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> and Australia, used to play fixtures in the amateur era against Oxford University at the famous old ground, as recently as 2001 in the case of the Wallabies.<\/p>\n<p>In 2003, Iffley Road hosted matches in the now defunct World Rugby U21 Championship, while it has been used for age-grade internationals at various points since then.<\/p>\n<p>The venue previously hosted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england-u20\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England U20<\/a> men\u2019s 44-5 victory over the university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/blues\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Blues<\/a> side in 2023, and Japan National High School Team\u2019s 45-14 win against Oxford University earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>England U19 men rounded off their calendar year with a seven-try, 49-17 victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> at the Centre for Sporting Excellence, Ystrad Mynach last Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Japan National High School Team return to England after a three-match tour in 2024, which included a thrilling 52-47 result in March where England U19 emerged victors.<\/p>\n<p>The aforementioned Caluori, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/will-knight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Knight<\/a>, Aidan Ainsworth-Cave, Oli Scola and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/seb-kelly\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seb Kelly<\/a> all featured on the day and went on to earn their U20 debuts or add to their caps this summer.<\/p>\n<p>England U19s will also face their French counterparts in April, this time at Doncaster\u2019s Castle Park.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast Friday was a valuable first outing for a group with immense motivation to stake their claim in the England men\u2019s pathway,\u201d said Mapletoft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhilst the group will\u00a0naturally\u00a0evolve\u00a0between now and\u00a0March,\u00a0the aim to build togetherness across the pathway will\u00a0remain\u00a0and the U19 side\u00a0embodies\u00a0our\u00a0bond across age-grade staff and players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs proven\u00a0last season, our home fixture\u00a0against Japan is an exciting addition to our schedule\u00a0and will\u00a0serve as an\u00a0opportune window for our\u00a0cohort to continue to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oxford University\u2019s Iffley Road has been chosen as the venue for the England U19 men\u2019s fixture against a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-364745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}