Junior Boks crash out of U20 Championship

The Junior Springboks crashed out of the World Rugby U20 Championship in spectacular fashion in Cape Town on Sunday after slumping to a 31-12 defeat in their semi-final to Ireland.

Bafana Nhleko’s men were somewhat fortunate to qualify for the last-four after less than impressive pool play but they did beat Argentina when it mattered in their final pool game to qualify, but their shortcomings were in plain sight on Sunday at Athlone Stadium.

Ireland make juniors pay

The Junior Boks enjoyed the bulk of possession and territorial advantage for much of the first half, but failed to make it count, while the Irish found their game in the second period and punished the Boks for some poor defensive work.

Ireland No 10 Sam Prendergast, who has already played in the URC for Leinster, was on top of his game and his vision saw his wing James Nicholson score twice due to the flyhalf’s cross-field kicks and where the Boks were found wanting out wide.

For 37 minutes the Junior Boks and Ireland were involved in an arm-wrestle, with the South Africans having the edge, but against the run of play Nicholson went over for his first try to give Ireland a 7-0 lead at the interval.

The Junior Boks’ dominance finally paid off in the 46th minute when Imad Khan went in for a converted try and it seemed like the home team would click into gear and make their dominance count.

But it was Ireland who stepped up their game and in the next 20 minutes they scored tries through Brian Gleeson, after a good back-of-the-lineout move, Nicholson, who took a cross-field kick by Prendergast, and replacement back Sam Berman, who sliced through the home team’s defence to score his team’s fourth try.

The Irish were in complete control at 28-7 up and it soon became 31-7 when the impressive Prendergast slotted a penalty to rub salt into the South African wounds.

It must be said though Nhleko’s team never gave up and right at the end they scored a second try, through Coetzee le Roux, but it was all too late for the home side.

The second semi-final, between two other northern hemisphere teams, France and England, was due to kick off at 7pm, at the same venue.