Australian Youth Rugby Championships


The Under-19s Rugby Championship, known as URC, is an Australian rugby union competition for men's youth teams, forming part of the pathway for selection to the. The competition is hosted annually by Rugby Australia and players must meet an under-19 age requirement. Previously, this tournament was played closer in time to the World Junior Championship and used an under-20 age requirement.

History

National U20s

The first National U20 Rugby Championship was played in 2014, and was contested by teams from New South Wales, Queensland and an Australian Barbarians side. National under-20 teams from the Pacific islands were also invited to play matches.
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. A representative team from that tournament was selected to participate in the National U20 Championship's top division.

Super U20s

The Super Under 20s Championship was launched in 2016, with teams from Australia's five Super Rugby franchises competing. 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.

U19s Rugby Championship

In 2018 the competition was changed to an Under-19 championship played six months earlier in the lead in to the campaign for the Oceania and World Rugby tournaments.

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