A massively disappointed Bafana Nhleko commended the Junior Springboks for showing fight in their pool defeat to England, but said an early exit from the U20 Championship shouldn’t define the talent in the squad.
The Junior Springboks suffered a late 17-10 loss to England in wet and muddy conditions in their final pool match at Athlone on Tuesday night.
Despite a brave fight in tricky conditions, South Africa conceded a maul try after the fulltime hooter and failed to progress to the playoffs for the first time since 2011, when they finished in fifth place in Italy.
While two successive defeats have dampened the campaign on home soil, Nhleko said there will still be plenty of successful careers to come out of the Junior Bok group.
“We talk about the fight, the resilience that South Africans have got, standing up and being counted when the chips are down. I thought today was a lot of that,” Nhleko said.
“There are brilliant players in this group. The big thing I said to them is that I hope these last two games against Argentina and England don’t define them going forward. They must never see it that way.
“It’s quite hard sitting here because the tournament has gone away from us and that’s the most difficult thing for me. But for them as a group, they are still on their journeys, also as individuals.
“I believe the work that we’ve put in, although not showing on the field, is going to stand them well. There are players in this group that will go on to represent their country.”
Nhleko said that while he was unhappy with the result, he was still proud of the determination his side showed to bounce back from a second-round defeat to Argentina in Stellenbosch.
“Disappointing is an understatement. It’s raw, very raw at the moment, the pain that we’re all feeling,” Nhleko said.
“The biggest thing is that we got a good reaction from the boys in terms of attitude, intensity and really being up for the fight. We did defend well, but the crux is that we needed to score more. That didn’t materialise but you saw the conditions and they type of game it was, where the tries were coming from.
“I am massively proud of the effort. We came into this game with our backs against the wall and it’s probably the longest four days we’ve had as a group.”
The Junior Springboks will have a re-match against Argentina in the fifth-place semi-final at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday afternoon (2pm).
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
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Src: sarugbymag.co.za
