The Junior Springboks will have to do some serious soul searching after squandering a 17-0 lead against Australia who beat South Africa 29-24 in Tuesday’s second round of matches in the Rugby Championship U20 in Gqeberha.
The results sees coach Kevin Foote’s Baby Boks fall from first position in the Rugby Champs U20 standings, to third.
New Zealand, South Africa’s opponent in Sunday’s title-deciding third round of games at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, has taken the lead after brushing aside Argentina 75-21 in the earlier game on Tuesday.
The Junior Wallabies are in second place with the Aussies taking on a winless Los Pumitas in Sunday’s final round and still in a strong position to win the title after their come-from-behind victory over South Africa.
Second Half Slumber
However, the Junior Springboks have only themselves to blame for a mind-blogging second-half implosion after tries by Xola Nyali and Siya Ndlozi gave them a 14-0 halftime lead with No.10 Vusi Moyo converting both five-pointers.
An early penalty goal by Moyo stretched the Baby Boks’ lead to 17-0 before injuries started breaking the home side’s momentum.
But players going down with cramps and being replaced alone can’t be blamed for the SA youngsters’ implosion after the Junior Wallabies hit back with four tries from Edwin Langi, Lipini Ata, Xavier Rubens and Eamon Doyle, with Sidney Harvey converting three five-pointers and landing a penalty goal for a 29-17 lead.
A late try by Bathobile Hlekani gave the Baby Boks hope of salvaging a win but of why his team deserved to end up on the losing side, SA U20 captain Riley Norton says:
I thought we had a great first half. Our game drivers were doing really well, our Nine and Ten were communicating really great and played a great territorial game and never got bored. I just think [conceding] soft penalties at times and losing the territorial battle [killed us off] but I think it is great that we learn these lessons now in the Rugby Championship before we go to the World Cup (World Rugby U20 Championships).
We can go back to the drawing board and look back at the positives and try and improve and I know we will. The boys are still feeling positive and we still have one more game in the bag in the Rugby Championships.
Dangerous Kiwi Outfit
That last game Norton mentions will be against a Baby All Blacks team that managed to score 11 tries in their huge 75-21 win against Argentina and are looking like favourites to win the title they became the inaugural winners of last year’s first edition of the Rugby Champs U20 in Australia.
Baby Boks head coach Foote is however looking forward to the challenge of tackling the Kiwi U20 side and says:
This will be a huge fixture for us – they play with a great tempo and have their tails up, so they will be great opposition. The team will be very highly motivated for the New Zealand match; we are playing at home, and facing New Zealand is just an amazing Test match in itself.
But, touching on what Riley said, we also need to go and look at our own game and to me, not everything was doom and gloom. I think our scrum went really well, our lineout needs a little more work.
Where we probably got hurt was around the breakdown and when you play against New Zealand and you turn the ball over, you know they are very good at counter attack, so we will just go and have a look at some of those turnovers [conceded against Australia] and what we can do better there.
Sunday’s Final Round of games at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium start at 14:00 as Australia take on Argentina with the Baby Boks and Baby Blacks doing battle from 16:10 and both games will be broadcast live on SuperSport Rugby (DStv Channel 211).
