The International Rugby Board (IRB) has announced a restructuring of its Age Grade tournament strategy. From 2008 an annual 16-team Junior World Championship and an 8-team Junior World Trophy will be run at Under 20 level, replacing the IRB's existing Under 19 and Under 21 World Championships.

The restructure, which was approved by IRB Council, comes after a period of extensive research, consultation and feedback from all stakeholders in the Game, including Member Unions and Regional Associations and is aimed at increasing competitiveness and competition at Age Grade level.

"The IRB Under 19 and 21 World Championships have proven extremely popular and successful but following initial consultation with stakeholders and as a result of the way the Game has developed, we moved in 2006 from an annual U21 tournament to a bi-annual tournament. Now that the consultation process is complete the agreed way forward is to move to one annual IRB Junior World Championship tournament that will meet the requirements of the Member Unions," said IRB Chairman, Dr Syd Millar.

"The IRB is committed to increasing the overall competitiveness of the Game and our Age Grade tournament strategy is very important in this. The restructure took into account the fact that, as a result of the player academy structures now in place around the world, many players at age 20 or 21 are already playing professional senior Rugby for their club, province or state," added Dr Millar.

The annual IRB Junior World Championship will be contested by 16 teams. It will bring together the 16 best Under 20 teams in World Rugby. The format provides the opportunity for teams such as Fiji, Samoa and USA to regularly play teams that they would not normally meet and allow the developing Unions the opportunity to gauge their progress on an annual basis.

The IRB is also committed to providing a competitive competition and development pathway for more Tier 2 Unions and Tier 3 Unions. This will be achieved through the introduction of an annual 8-team IRB Junior World Trophy, also at under 20 level. There will be promotion and relegation between the World Championship and World Trophy tournaments that will together provide annual competition for 24 Unions. Developing Unions will also have the opportunity of hosting these tournaments which will allow them to gain experience in hosting major Rugby events.

"The restructuring of IRB Age Grade tournaments does not mean the end of Under 19 and 21 level Rugby which is still an important development tool for some Unions who will continue regional competitions at these age grades in order to assist in their development pathways," added Dr Millar.

The Host Unions and locations for the inaugural 2008 IRB Junior World Championship and IRB Junior World Trophy tournaments will be announced shortly.