SA Under-20 team announced for England clash
South Africa Under-20 coach Dawie Theron has named his team to take on England in their final Pool C match at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship, at the Stadio Plebsicito in Padova on Saturday at 20h10 (local time in RSA).
England and South Africa have met twice in the semi-finals of the IRB Junior World Championships, as well as in last year’s playoff match for bronze in Argentina. The Baby Boks lost both semi-final matches against the English, but secured the bronze medal in Rosario when they beat England last year.
Jaco Taute, who recently joined the SA U20 squad as an injury replacement for Craig Barry, has been selected at fullback in one of five changes made to the starting line up from the team that beat Ireland 42-26 in Treviso on Tuesday. The Baby Boks defeated Scotland 33-0 in their opening match played in Padova on June 10.
Theron has recalled scrumhalf Pieter Rademan to the starting 15 in place of Lohan Jacobs. Rademan, a former SA Schools captain, will partner flyhalf Johan Goosen.
Flanker Siyamthanda Kolisi will start his second match of the tournament and teams up with Nizaam Carr and Arno Botha as the loose trio. Hooker Bongi Mbonambi returns to the starting team in place of Michael van Vuuren as does prop Juan Schoeman, who takes over at loose head from Stephan Kotze.
“We are playing England for the top honours in our Pool, so there’s naturally going to be plenty of tension and excitement building up to this fixture which is great,” said Theron.
“We’ve managed to achieve maximum points without playing too much rugby during our matches against Ireland and Scotland, and England also earned bonus point victories against both those sides in the tournament.
“They’ve got skilful players across the park and will test us for 80 minutes. We are going to have to be sharp in our execution and our discipline will have to be right up there. We’ve defended well by only leaking two tries, and our structures will have to once again be up for the challenge of containing a team who have not been afraid to play an expansive game.
“We pretty much expecting them to continue that trend on Saturday, which is why we’ll have to defend well, and execute our own opportunities which comes our way. It’s a guaranteed semi-final ticket for winners, so we hope to the successful team on the evening.”
South Africa – Jaco Taute, Courtnall Skosan, Bradley Moolman, Francois Venter, Wandile Mjekevu, Johan Goosen, Pieter Rademan, Arno Botha (c), Siyamthanda Kolisi, Nizaam Carr, Eben Etzebeth, Ruan Venter, John Roy Jenkinson, Bongi Mbonambi, Juan Schoeman.
Reserves: Michael van Vuuren, Nic Schonert, Jean Cook, Cornell du Preez, Lohan Jacobs, John Welthagen, Paul Jordaan.
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