The Junior Springboks will have plenty to ponder after they battled out a 13-all stalemate against the New Zealand U20s in the opening match of the inaugural U20 Rugby Championship in Bokarina, Queensland in Australia on Thursday.
It was a thrilling match in atrocious conditions, after a massive storm shortly before the game left a waterlogged pitch, while a strong wind also impacted the play of both teams.
The Junior Boks were, however, lucky to escape with a draw, after they were largely outplayed over the first 55 minutes of the match, before they powered back after the introduction of some second half reinforcements, while the NZ U20s missed a late conversion to win the game.
Junior Bok captain Zachary Porthen admitted that not everything went to plan and that they would have a good look at the game (on video).
Right areasOur plan was that we wanted to play in the right areas of the field and play the territory game nicely. But I dont think we managed to achieve that, which is why we didnt get the result we wanted, said Porthen.
I think the boys fought nicely. We will go and analyse our game and we will definitely come back better next week.
After trailing 8-0 early in the second half the Junior Boks finally snapped into action and scored all 13 of their points in a six minute spell, with right wing Joel Leotlela scoring their only try and flyhalf Tyler Sefoor slotting a conversion and two penalties to lead 13-8 after 63 minutes.
A missed penalty from Sefoor with eight minutes remaining kept the NZ U20s in striking distance and they almost stole the win at the end with a late try, but luckily the conversion was missed.
The Junior Boks now turn their focus to the hosts, Australia, who were hammered 25-6 by Argentina in their opener and they will be desperate to bounce back.
We have a strict gameplan that we will stick to, although we may tweak a few things. But we will analyse Australia, see what we need to change, but I dont think there will be many changes and we will just come back harder, explained Porthen on their plan heading into that game next Tuesday.
