Baby Boks must dig deep
IT’LL TAKE AN 80MIN EFFORT Team needs to start well in the semifinal to have any chance of winning.
Junior Springbok assistant coach Bafana Nhleko said yesterday it would take a determined 80 minute effort in the World Rugby Under-20 Championship semifinal against England tomorrow to book a place in the final as the competition reaches the business end.
“The first thing we need to get right is an 80min performance,” said Nhleko. “We have played well in patches but at the same time, we have not been able to string together the kind of performance that we are capable of.
“The round-robin stages are over now and it is playoff time, so we only have 80min.”
The Baby Boks earned their place in the semifinal following bonus-point victories against Georgia and Ireland before a strong fightback to secure a bonus point in their final pool match against hosts France, despite going down.
Nhleko expected a challenging test against the English, who finished the pool stages as the top team after bonus-point victories in all of their pool matches. England U20 are second to New Zealand in terms of tries scored and conceded up to now. But he said the Baby Boks knew what they had to do to advance to the final.
“England are very well organised in terms of their attacking structure and their set pieces are very good,” said Nhleko.
“So for us it will be a case of working very hard, pressuring their attack and keeping the ball. If we can improve our defence and place them under pressure we will be in a solid position because we have shown that we have the ability to score tries.
“But we want to start well. So we will continue to put in the hard yards at training and then it is up to us to go out there and give everything on the field.”
Coach Chean Roux will announce his team to face England today. – ANA