South Africa storm into World Rugby U20’s semi-finals
The Junior Springboks are through to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Rugby Under-20 Championship after they scored a comprehensive 46-13 victory over Australia.
The bonus-point win placed the South Africans top of Pool B and they also finished first on the overall points table thanks to their third successive bonus point win at the tournament.
South Africa will now play England on June 15 at 20h30 at the same venue in Calvisano while New Zealand and France will cross swords in the earlier semi-final slot at 18h30.
Dawie Theron, the Junior Boks coach, said afterwards he was very pleased with his side’s execution of the game plan.
“This was our best performance so far. We did not start well against Italy, improved a bit against Samoa and tonight we gave a much more convincing display. We did our homework on Australia and knew that they could be dangerous off quick ruck ball, so we contested well in that area,” said Theron.
He added that the medical team will assess fly half Brendan Thomson in the morning after the No 10 left the field in the second half because of a knock on the shoulder.
Captain and No 8 Hanro Liebenberg praised his forwards for a huge performance.
“We dominated upfront and that allowed our backs to come into the game. We scored some very good tries and I think the backs can be pleased with the platform that the pack created for them. There were still a few errors that we not happy about, but we now have a couple of days to prepare for our next match,” said Liebenberg.
The top four teams on the overall standings are:
- South Africa 15 points (93 point difference)
- New Zealand 14 (83)
- France 13 (61)
- England 10 (-5)
The semi-final draw for 15 June at Calvisano are as follow:
18h30 New Zealand vs France
20h30 South Africa vs England
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