The Junior Springboks left their best performance for the last match as they beat England 22-15 in the third-place playoff of World Rugby’s U20 Championship on Friday at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town.
Many people, though, will wonder why the South Africans left their best performance of the tournament for the bronze medal match.
Finishing on a high in Cape Town 🙌#JuniorBoks #WorldRugbyU20s #JourneyToGreatness pic.twitter.com/kEsAdoNgjH
— Junior Springboks (@JuniorBoks) July 14, 2023
On the attacking front, they dominated the match in the first half and put up a brilliant defensive performance in the second forty to seal the game.
It’s the fourth successive U20 Championship that the Baby Boks finish third after doing so in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The tournament was interrupted by Covid-19 in 2021 and 2022.
The victory over the English half broke the chokehold the Northern Hemisphere had on their Southern counterparts at the tournament. Ireland and France contested the final on Friday, but South Africa ensured that a Southern Hemisphere side ended up amongst the top three.
Although the Junior Springboks struggled in the scrums, just like the whole tournament, they fronted up excellently defending the English maul and contesting the lineouts.
But it was their physicality in the tackles and at the breakdown where they totally dominated the visitors.
The forwards put in double tackles on the English runners, while the rush defence of the backs shut down plenty of moves their opponents tried to string together.
And when England found the outside of the rush defence, the South Africans scrambled brilliantly on the cover defence to keep the English from scoring.
All the points were scored in the first half, and that shows how fiercely contested the second half was as neither side gave an inch defending their try line.
Within the first 20 minutes, the home side racked up a 17-3 lead after two excellently worked tries through Hennie Sieberhagen and eighth man Corne Beets with flyhalf Jean Smith converting both and adding a penalty.
England scored the first points after working into a great position after kickoff for their flyhalf Connor Slevin to slot a penalty.
But England winger Cassius Cleaves made a brilliant break from his half, beating several defenders to put hooker Craig Wright in for arguably the best try of the match.
Junior Bok hooker Juann Else scored shortly before halftime to take his side to a 22-8 lead, and you would’ve forgiven the home crowd for thinking that their team would wrap the game up.
England never gave up, though, and scored deep into extra time of the first half to bring them within seven points of their hosts.
The second half was an exchange of blows and some massive defence from both sides, but the South Africans managed to hold out defensively, despite England knocking hard on the door for points.
Junior Springbok coach Bafana Nhleko can be happy with the fight his team showed in their final match, but one wonders where they could have ended up if they fronted up physically in their semi-final loss to Ireland.
South Africa 22 — Tries: Hennie Sieberhagen, Corne Beets, Juann Else. Conversions: Jean Smith (2). Penalty: Smith.
England 15 — Tries: Craig Wright, Zach Carr. Conversion: Connor Slevin. Penalty: Slevin.
IOL Sport
