SA u18’s fall victim to French Masterclass in Bellville
CAPE TOWN.- The South African u18 team will rue their slow start, and ill-discipline which resulted in Katleho Lynch’s side going down 37-24 at the hands of France in their first match of the U18 International series at Stellenberg High School in Bellville on Tuesday.
South Africa, who came into the match as favourites with the home support behind them, and having thumped France in their previous meeting in last year’s campaign, struggled early in the match and allowed the French to fully get into their stride.
As for France, they came into the match looking to bounce back from their humiliating (41-0) defeat against England in their first match of the series in Paarl last Friday.
The French looked much better as a team from the get-go, applying pressure to the hosts, interlinking well between the forwards and backs, while showing composure in attack and defence in the early exchanges.
The visitors opened their tally early with a penalty from flyhalf, Diego Jurd to take a 3-0 lead.
Three points quickly turned to nine for the French as Jurd slotted in two more penalties to create breathing ground between them and the South Africans.
South Africa, trying as they may to disrupt France at their own game, made silly mistakes in the breakdown, giving away penalties, which allowed the visitors to pounce and build scoreboard pressure.
The visitors then went on to score two tries before the halftime interval through scrumhalf, Temanatua Boichot, and winger, Charly Mignot to extend the lead to 23 points at the halfway point.
The home side, having been treated to a masterclass in the first half were on a mission to stage a comeback in the second stanza, and the home side started the half like a wrecking ball.
The South Africans applied much needed pressure to the French defence and got a penalty inside their 22 meters with just a minute played.
Head coach, Katleho Lynch made crucial changes to his backline in the second half, and one player that repaid the coach’s faith was Haashim Pead.
The scrumhalf dotted over when his side won a penalty in the opposition half. He quickly tipped the ball, sliced his way through the defence untouched to score South Africa’s first points of the match.
That score turned the tide of the match around, making it an end-to-encounter with both sides dotting over the whitewash in quick succession.
First up, France managed to retain the ball from a scrappy lineout, and string together a couple of phases which resulted in Eliott Duthil crashing over for his team’s first of the second half.
On the other hand, another backline replacement for South Africa, Janco Purchase bulldozed his way over the line to bring some respectability to the scoreline before France’s Gabin Garault cancelled that score to lead to 37-14 with 20 minutes to play.
The host nation would then go on to finish the match strongly as they scored two more tries with Pead getting his brace while Luyanda Kunene also got in on the action later on in the match.
Unfortunately for Lynch’s side, the staging of the comeback came too late, as France managed to hold on despite being down to 14 men with flanker, Marceau Marzullo receiving a yellow card for repeated infringements.
Reacting to the match, Lynch attributed the defeated to their lack of discipline which resulted in the several errors that cost them in the first half.
“I think we made too many consecutive errors,” he said.
“It was 3-0, 6-0, 9-0 and then 23-0 and if you’re playing at test match level, conceding those points consecutively makes it difficult to come back but the fight back was commendable,” he added.
With a fired up England side in the corner on Saturday, the coach did however remain optimistic, stating that there were some positives they will take from the defeat.
“There’s lots of positives, just in terms of the message we gave the boys at halftime,” he added.
“We asked for go forward, to get us over the advantage line, I think Haashim (Pead) really brought that to the game and Janco (Purchase) also had a little bit of X-factor to the way we tried to finish off in the second half.”
“We will be better going into Saturday; I think the team was a little bit shocked in terms of how the match started with the intensity and all the other variables that come with it.”
South Africa will play their last match of the u18 series against England at Paarl Boys High on Saturday. Kick-off to that clash is 15:00.
Scorers:
France 37 (23) – Tries: Temanatua Boichot, Charly Mignot, Eliott Duthil, Gabin Garault. Conversions: Diego Jurd (3), Luka Keletaona. Penalties: Jurd (3). South Africa 24 (0) – Tries: Haashim Pead (2), Janco Purchase, Luyanda Kunene. Conversions: Dominic Malgas (2).
