Smith stars as Junior Boks sneak one past Georgia
CAPE TOWN. – Junior Springbok head coach Bafana Nhleko says he is satisfied with his team’s performance after defeating Georgia 33-23 in the opening game of the u20 World Rugby Championship at Danie Craven Stadium on Saturday.
Nhleko named 11 debutants in his starting lineup, one of those being flyhalf Jean Smith who contributed 18 points with the boot and claimed the man-of-the-match award.
Nhleko’s team were quick off the ropes and scored 20 points in the first half. The first points came from a penalty slotted in by Smith in the third minute.
The first try of the game would come five minutes later through vice-captain Katlego Letebele who chipped over the visitors’ defence, collected his kick, and dotted over the whitewash.
That score was followed by a five-pointer from hometown hero, Jurenzo Julius. The Sharks man, alongside teammate Hakeem Kunene, made something out of nothing in the corner when Kunene, running out of space, offloaded to Julius who dived in to extend his side’s lead.
Georgia was physical up front and scored a try of their own in the first stanza through captain Lasha Tsikhistavi, converted by Petre Khutsishvili.
The home side led 20-7 at halftime.
The second half is where Nhleko and his troops will have to focus more when reviewing the match during the week.
The home side came out and were ill-disciplined from the get-go. They gave away four penalties in a row, struggled to retain their high balls, scrums tumbled, and received no go-forward ball with the visitors all over their faces.
Flanker, Ghudian Van Reenen also received a yellow card for repeated infringements, outlining the discipline issues the side found themselves in.
However, that didn’t stop Smith from slotting penalties in as the youngster scored a further two penalties and a conversion from Ethan Hooker’s try to seal the win for the home side.
A late try by Georgia’s replacement hooker, Nika Babunashvili wasn’t enough.
Reacting to the match, Nhleko said he was happy with the win but admitted that work still needs to be done.
“To be fair, I’m happy with the win,” he said.
“I think sometimes you need to be realistic and understand that it won’t always be easy.”
“We knew it was going to be tough today, for various reasons but at a tournament, you just want to get the first win, and we did that.”
There were times in the game when Georgia’s physicality and smart play had the upper hand on the hosts. Nhleko admits that the shift of confidence was something they had prepared for.
“It was all about trying to find a way to get the momentum back. We spoke about it a lot during our camps that at some point, the opposition will have momentum,” he said.
“Georgia was desperate, they started playing that way and started exposing us, and we just needed to calm down, get back to what we know and what works for us.”
The Junior Boks will shift focus to their second pool match against Italy on Thursday in Paarl.
Italy lost their opening game 43-15 against Argentina. They are a hurting team that will be out to disappoint the hosts on home soil.
Scorers:
South Africa 33 (20) – Tries: Katlego Letebele, Jurenzo Julius, Ethan Hooker. Conversions: Jean Smith (3). Penalties: Smith (4). Georgia 23 (7) – Tries: Lasha Tsikhistavi, Shako Aptsiauri, Nika Babunashvili. Conversion: Petre Khutsishvili. Penalties: Khutsishvili (2).
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