Plenty to ponder for Junior Boks after NZ U20 stalemate

The Junior Springboks will have plenty to ponder after they battled out a 13-all stalemate against the New Zealand U20s in the opening match of the inaugural U20 Rugby Championship in Bokarina, Queensland in Australia on Thursday.

It was a thrilling match in atrocious conditions, after a massive storm shortly before the game left a waterlogged pitch, while a strong wind also impacted the play of both teams.

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The Junior Boks were, however, lucky to escape with a draw, after they were largely outplayed over the first 55 minutes of the match, before they powered back after the introduction of some second half reinforcements, while the NZ U20s missed a late conversion to win the game.

Junior Bok captain Zachary Porthen admitted that not everything went to plan and that they would have a good look at the game (on video).

Right areas

“Our plan was that we wanted to play in the right areas of the field and play the territory game nicely. But I don’t think we managed to achieve that, which is why we didn’t get the result we wanted,” said Porthen.

“I think the boys fought nicely. We will go and analyse our game and we will definitely come back better next week.”

After trailing 8-0 early in the second half the Junior Boks finally snapped into action and scored all 13 of their points in a six minute spell, with right wing Joel Leotlela scoring their only try and flyhalf Tyler Sefoor slotting a conversion and two penalties to lead 13-8 after 63 minutes.

A missed penalty from Sefoor with eight minutes remaining kept the NZ U20s in striking distance and they almost stole the win at the end with a late try, but luckily the conversion was missed.

The Junior Boks now turn their focus to the hosts, Australia, who were hammered 25-6 by Argentina in their opener and they will be desperate to bounce back.

“We have a strict gameplan that we will stick to, although we may tweak a few things. But we will analyse Australia, see what we need to change, but I don’t think there will be many changes and we will just come back harder,” explained Porthen on their plan heading into that game next Tuesday.