Bafana Nhleko said the Junior Springboks are hurting after Sunday’s loss to Argentina, but aim to bounce back in the final match of the 2024 U20 World Championship.
The South Africans lost 34-24 in their fifth-place semi-final at Cape Town Stadium, and must now regroup to battle either Australia or Wales for seventh place on Friday.
The Junior Boks showed enterprise on attack but this was nullified by Argentina’s stronger performance in the lineouts.
Los Pumitas took a 14-point lead into the break, but the SA U20s made a big step up in the second half, with Jurenzo Julius testing the defence with his strong running in midfield.
Head coach Nhleko said his troops’ tendency to drop the intensity at important moments of the match spoiled several good opportunities.
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“There were lots of pressure release today,” he explained. “We would play in moments and get good momentum, then we release the pressure with an error or poor decision making and then we would find ourselves on the backfoot again.
“We started well in the lineouts, and when they started to get tired, we fell off with our detail to keep the pressure on them.
“Those are the opportunities that we lost, and those moments really hurt us. Today, the most disappointing thing was around the defence, which is usually our strong point.”
“Obviously we’re down in terms of how we feel because the result wasn’t what we had hoped for. The reality is that we must get up and go again because we have a game again on Friday.
“We know people are hurting, and the team hurt as much.
“The performance was good in parts but not good enough for the full 80 minutes, but we have one more to go, and we must bounce back and hopefully finish on a better note. Now we must play for some pride.”
Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The post Junior Boks to give it ‘one more go’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
