The coach of the South African mens under-20 rugby team, Bafana Nhleko, says that while performance is important, his main objective is to produce future Springbok players.
The Junior Springboks will take part in the inaugural Under-20 Rugby Championship in Australia next month.
The Junior Springbok team will be looking to maintain the standards set by their senior counterparts, who won the Rugby World Cup back-to-back in 2019 and 2023. The senior team will be expected to successfully defend their title at the World Cup in Australia in 2027.
But with most players ageing and unlikely to be part of the distant future, young players will have to step up to keep the momentum going.
The Bulk of those players will most likely come from the Junior Springboks team that will take part in the inaugural Under-20 Rugby Championship in Australia next month. And Junior Boks coach, Bafana Nhleko, says hes under pressure to produce players for the senior team.
Its a privilege to be part of SA rugby our biggest aim is to make sure we keep producing for them in this group and if we do it with this group, we are really on the right track but we also want to perform as a group and we produce for Springboks then we are on the right track,
The Junior Boks will play against the host nation Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Although they dont know much about the opposition, Nhleko says they will focus more on testing their systems and style of play.
We are playing New Zealand first up they have got a new coaching team so we only going on what we think the NZ Rugby DNA is but the biggest issue is to test our systems. Australia was very good in the last junior world champs; so they and Argentina have the same coaches. There might be the same style of play.
A number of players were part of the squad that represented the Junior Boks at World Rugbys Under 20 Championship that was hosted in South Africa last year. Nhleko says the experience they gained will come in handy in this tournament.
Last year we learnt some tough lessons and we were not packing a punch. in set pieces that really hurt us so thats one thing we have tried to address but this is a different team with a different mission so I want them to carve their own identity.
France-based player Tiaan Jacobs, who plays for the top-ranked team Biarritz Olympique, is part of the team for this tournament. Nhleko says they had been keeping an eye on him.
Tiaan was born here he was here until matric he is somebody, we have been keeping an eye on from school. The club he is at is going through some difficult times and we started engaging with him and his parents and the opportunity presented itself that he could come here.
The tournament will be staged on Australias Sunshine Coast from the 2nd to the 12th of next month with the Boks kicking off their campaign against New Zealand.
