Junior Boks tear Argentina apart

SA U-20S RUN RIOT, SCORING 72 POINTS Coach Chean Roux still level-headed after 11-try feast.

Junior Springbok coach Chean Roux remained humble yesterday as his team romped to an 11-try 72-14 bonus-point victory against Argentina in their final pool match at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship at the Avchala Stadium to book a semifinal berth.

The SA Under-20s produced a magnificent all-round performance to run the young Argentinians ragged, with hooker Johan Grobbelaar and winger Gianni Lombard each crossing the tryline twice.

‘’We treated this match as a quarterfinal and the players responded very well,” said Roux.

“All credit must go to them. I think they delivered a fantastic performance. But we have achieved nothing yet.”

Grobbelaar opened the scoring with two tries in four minutes, first from a rolling maul and then a stolen lineout, to put his side 12-0 ahead after 10 minutes.

Argentina struck back with a try from a pick-and-go minutes later, and this was followed by Junior Bok centre Wandisile Simelane receiving a yellow card for tripping a player.

This, however, did not affect the Junior Boks’ rhythm as winger Gianni Lombard received a smart pass from centre Damian Willemse to score the team’s third try, before back-to-back tries by Willemse and winger Yaw Penxe.

Argentina were only able to add one try in the second quarter by winger and captain Tomas Malanos, who took advantage of an overlap out wide, which saw them trail 31-14 at the break.

Los Pumitas were dealt a blow in the opening seconds of the second half with Franco Molina being sin-binned, and the SA Under-20s capitalised on their man advantage with No 8 Juarno Augustus crossing the tryline.

Curwin Bosch added a penalty goal, while Lombard, Embrose Papier, Manie Libbok, and replacement backs Francois de Villiers and Jean-Luc Cilliers added further tries.