Australia will take on New Zealand in a trans-Tasman double-header at the Oceania Rugby U20 Championship at Bond University on the Gold Coast in May.
Featuring the top two teams in the region at this level, the Oceania Rugby U20 Championship provides Australia and New Zealand with an ideal opportunity to run the rule over their squads ahead of the World Rugby U20 Championship in England the following month.
New Zealand are the defending Oceania U20 champions after winning last year's inaugural competition, which also featured Japan and Samoa, with a 46-29 victory over Australia in the decisive round robin match.
Buoyed by the success, Scott Robertson’s team went on to regain their status as world champions in Italy.
Australia, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on semi-final place at the U20 Championship for the second tournament running when they were edged by 2014 title winners England for the best runner-up spot on points differential.
"Playing against New Zealand is the ultimate challenge in rugby and it will be a great experience for our next generation of Wallabies to experience a Bledisloe Cup-style clash"
Australia go into the two-match series without a win to their name in five previous outings against New Zealand at the U20 World and Oceania Championships combined.
“The Oceania Rugby U20s Championship will give this side an excellent opportunity to test out our arsenal against last year’s U20s champions New Zealand,” insisted Australia U20 coach Adrian Thompson.
“This is an important part of their development as rugby players to get experience playing international opposition before we head to the World Rugby U20 Championship in June.
“Our players have been playing at a high standard throughout the Super U20s Championship and we look forward to the challenge of playing New Zealand.”
Fans from across the world will have the opportunity to see the next generation of stars with the matches on 3 and 7 May to be live streamed via rugby.com.au and oceaniarugby.com.
“Playing against New Zealand is the ultimate challenge in rugby and it will be a great experience for our next generation of Wallabies to experience a Bledisloe Cup-style clash,” added Ben Whitaker, the ARU General Manager High Performance.
“The Super U20s Championship has been the ideal preparation for our squad, who have played more rugby this year compared to any other year in preparation for a test series.”