Baby Boks tackle Les Bleus for spot in semis

JUNIOR Springbok coach Dawie Theron called for his team to lift their performance significantly in the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Manchester to keep alive their hopes of winning the title.

The Junior Springboks suffered a 19-13 defeat against Argentina on Saturday at the AJ Bell Stadium in their second pool match. This followed a 59-19 victory against Japan in the opening round.

The team will face France in their final roundrobin match on Wednesday, and with New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Wales all tied on six log points after the first two rounds, it could be a battle between these sides for the final semi-final berth (as the best second-placed team from the three groups).

“We have to lift our game significantly in the match against France,” said Theron. “The performance against Argentina was not good enough and we paid a high price for that.

“Our draw for Wednesday is such that we face France, and Australia takes on England in the final matches of the day (at 8.45pm SA time), so we will have a good idea of what we have to do in the match in order to book a semi-final place.”

The team wasted no time analysing what went wrong against Argentina, and had a tough video session soon after arriving back at the hotel from the stadium. “We had an open and honest video session, and while it was hard for us all, it was necessary,” said Theron. “But it is now behind us. We need to turn our focus to the next match and to delivering our best performance yet.”

The team was due to visit Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, yesterday. – ANA