Nhleko calls on Junior Boks to ‘show character’ in final U20 Champs game

Junior Springboks coach Bafana Nhleko has called on his squad to “show character” for their remaining Pool C match against England next Tuesday at this year’s World Rugby U20 Championship, taking place in Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

The Junior Boks will have to beat England with a bonus point and deny their opponents any log points to stand a chance of playing in the knockout rounds of the competition, after going down to Argentina in their second pool game in Stellenbosch on Thursday night.

Nhleko’s team were hammered 31-12 by the Argentines in wet and windy conditions, after opening their U20 Championship campaign with a solid and impressive win against Fiji last Saturday.

‘Give reason to support us’

It is now make or break for the “Baby Boks”.

“For us it’s about showing character now and give people a reason to come back and support us again,” said Nhleko, looking ahead to Tuesday’s match against England at the Athlone Stadium.

On Thursday in Stellenbosch, Argentina scored five tries to the Junior Boks’ one and handled the conditions far better than the home team did. The visitors to South Africa also neutralised the Junior Boks’ pack, which put them on the path to victory.

‘Need to rally’

“We didn’t start well, and we spoke about it earlier in the week, that they’re a team that chase a good start, and we fell away in that first 20 minutes,” said Nhleko.

“The big thing is that we didn’t get going and maybe we fell into the trap when things were not going our way, but with a short turnaround, we can’t dwell too much on the loss – we need to rally for the next match.”

Nhleko was full of praise for the great support by the Stellenbosch crowd, who braved the cold and rain to get behind the team.

“We were down and out today, but we have to pitch up for the next one,” he said.

“There was an incredible crowd out there that stayed right until the end, in the rain, to support us and for that we’re grateful and sorry that we disappointed them with the performance.”