U20 Rugby Championship 2025
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The Junior Bok team has also been announced:
Junior Boks geared for massive New Zealand clash
The Junior Springboks are motivated and determined to finish the U20 Rugby Championship on a positive note when they face New Zealand at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Sunday.
It's a mixture of the first two games but important returnees from the first game are Matt Romao at blindside, Albie Bester at 12, and Gilermo Mentoe at 15, all selections which do improve the team (I like Malgas but either at 10 or 13, not particularly at 12 like he was against the Junior Wallabies).
Moyo is retained at 10 but seems likely to have been instructed to kick less, or at least, to not kick as long as he did against Argentina. Foote refers to "kicking patterns [which] were out of character", so I presume he just means that they need to kick less for territory and attack when the space is available.
The job for the NZ U20s seems relatively straighforward: kick smartly so as to not give that back 3 easy counter-attacking opportunities; set a stable lineout platform; and put the Junior Bok skillset under as much pressure as possible. That means double tackles, both low and around the torso, so as to make the offload and passing options more difficult.
I think the NZ scrum is likely to get smashed but if they can get those other things right, they should be in with a decent chance.
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Game day updates ahead of our final game against South Africa U20s
Out:
Tamiano Ahloo (injured)
Dylan Pledger (illness)In:
Riley Tofilau at 3
Charlie Sinton at 9
Dane Johnston moves to 17
Robson Faleafā moves to 18
Jai Tamati at 21Live at 2am NZST on Sky Sport. 📺
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Jeez looked like the South African ducked a bit into that one. I would call that mitigation.
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I don't know why I bother watching rugby sometimes. NZ down to 13.
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NZ did well to shut that out for two minutes but that half back nearly fucked it at the end!
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@Mauss that kick to touch at the end from the NZ replacement halfback 🤦🏻♂️..just when you thought you had seen everything 🤷🏻♂️
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@W32 said in U20 Rugby Championship 2025:
I’m not sure Moyo is the answer for SA at 10. Quite a bit of aimless kicking at critical times.
I tend to agree on Moyo. He has a good boot on him but I can’t immediately recall a great deal of positive outcomes resulting from it. The Junior Boks need a first five who can play flat to the line. The problem is that I don’t really know who that could or should be.
The intensity from the Junior Boks at the outset was great but once the NZ U20s were able to get back into the game, any sort of coherent game plan for the SA U20s was lacking, I felt. In contrast, the calmness and skill execution from the NZ U20s to deal with the early onslaught was something else. Will Cole is rising very quickly in my estimation, the way he was able to draw defenders onto him while releasing others into space was terrific. He has a great feel for the line.
During the second half, the Baby Blacks had no less than six genuine ball players in the backline, players who have experience running a backline in either 15s or 7s: Will Cole, Charlie Sinton, Stanley Solomon, Rico Simpson, Jack Wiseman and Maloni Kunawave. While NZ Rugby have been lagging behind recently in terms of tactical innovation, a backline filled with players who can call and change plays on the fly could be an important next step.
Finally, and remarkably, this was the first win for the NZ U20s against the Junior Boks in 15 years. After winning their semi-final against the SA U20s in 2010, the Baby Blacks lost 6 consecutive games against their perennial foes – 2012, 2013, 2014 (2x), 2018, and 2019 – before drawing last year. Great way to get over that particular hump.
