Former Australia A rugby coach Adrian Thompson has been named coach of the Australian Under-20 team to play in this year’s Junior World Championship in France.

Thompson replaces recently-departed Australian Rugby Union high-performance director David Nucifora who held the U20 coaching role for five years.

Australia finished a disappointing eighth in last year’s U20 competition in South Africa and haven’t enjoyed any international success since the U19 team won the world championship in 2006 under Phil Mooney.

Thompson is the current forwards coach at the ARU national academy in Brisbane and also served as Queensland Reds assistant coach a decade ago.

He will be assisted by Sean Hedger, the Sydney-based ARU national academy boss, for the junior tournament in June.

The first of three Australian Under-20 selection camps will be held at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra next week.