Junior Books salvage 7th-place finish at World Rugby U20 Championship

CAPE TOWN - The Junior Springboks salvaged a seventh-place finish at the 14th edition of the World Rugby U20 Championship. 

Despite a 47-31 win over Wales at the DHL Stadium, coach Bafana Nhleko admitted that his side’s lack of confidence was visible.

"I think we've been caring since day one and we've been trying to give it our all since day one. What's changed today, I guess maybe a little bit of pressure was off. I actually thought the boys stuck to the plan, they didn't actually go away from that and again you could still see some things because our confidence is not where it should be."

The Junior Bok coach expressed his admiration for his team’s character, having suffered three successive defeats that derailed their campaign.

"We still created plenty of opportunities we didn't convert. Maybe if it was a high-stakes game, I don't know if the scoreboard would have been different but I think the biggest thing is the character of the group, of the boys, they're all part of the leadership group. In terms of how they've handled themselves this week, it's easy to switch off, it's easy not to be in the right space."

Nhleko revealed that the team’s preparations weren’t altered heading into their final match but playing for pride was a big focus.

"We've gone through our processes as normal, we've tried to manage their bodies, done a thorough analysis on Wales, what we wanted to do, so we spoke a lot about pride and pride, not just pride for the country and all of that but what this group is capable of. There's some good players in here and I've always said that."

The Junior Bok coach shared his thoughts on where he thought his side went wrong.

"Look, it's a difficult tournament. I think the Argentina game, the second game, we weren't good and even then we still tried to play, we created opportunities. I said it before, I thought the boys were up for it against England and very marginal calls in terms of what went against us and the second game against Argentina, that was probably the most difficult thing for us, the energy was there but you sort of knew you lost an opportunity to play in the semifinals."

Captain Zachary Porthen opened the scoring in the seventh-place playoff and ended up with two tries to his name.

"It's always good to end on a high note. Yes, it's not the position we wanted to be playing for. After being hurt so many times, you need to step up and gain something from all the hard work you've put in and at least we can say we got a good result in the end, so the boys walk away with a smile. I'm very proud of myself and all the boys. I think we stuck to the plan today and that's why we came out on top." 

Despite the big, high-scoring win, the Junior Bok coach admitted his side left a few more points on the field in the final outing.

"I think the profile of the group, when they get it together and it clicks, they can really play good rugby and we've got the potential to put teams under pressure and we want to do that with ball in hand. It was nice to see some of the tries on the field and I said to the boys I'll try not to be upset about the 31 points we conceded but it's not just that, I think we probably left another five or six tries out there."