The Junior Springboks are leaving no stone unturned as they put together for Saturday’s U20 World Championship opener in opposition to Fiji at Cape City Stadium.
The SA U20 facet moved into their official match base within the Mom Metropolis from their residence base in Stellenbosch, and instantly went about their enterprise with a day session in opposition to their Australian counterparts on the Hamilton rugby membership grounds in Sea Level.
The time has come ⏰
The #JuniorBoks will kick-start their #WorldRugbyU20s marketing campaign on Saturday. Tickets can be found at Ticketmaster: https://t.co/uTr6rjwqC9 #JourneyToGreatness pic.twitter.com/N3RjXcFD2i
— SA Junior Rugby (@SAJuniorRugby) June 24, 2024
Talking to native media shortly after the crew had checked into their match crew lodge, assistant coach Lumumba Currie mentioned the main focus of crew for this week is to high-quality tune their preparations for the sport in opposition to Fiji.
“We’ve been collectively for 4 weeks now, and the blokes are wanting sharp in camp. We’ve had a few coaching video games in opposition to the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport Rugby Institute (Sasri), which was an excellent factor for us as we would have liked to get that contact health,” added Currie.
The previous weekend the crew additionally had a exercise in opposition to New Zealand on the Sanlam Boland Stadium in Wellington, which additionally proved precious for the upcoming showpiece.
“That can give us a greater preventing probability within the competitors as a result of we performed three worldwide matches within the (lately staged U20 Rugby) Championship, which is one thing we by no means had earlier than, and in the event you have in mind the European groups would have a Six Nations below their belt earlier than arriving right here,” the Junior Boks forwards coach mentioned.
The Fijian facet will encompass gamers who performed within the Pacific and New Zealand U20 competitions, which suggests they’re battle hardened and have a crew with settled mixtures.
It is for that reason that, in keeping with Currie, the Junior Boks will choose their greatest accessible match squad for what can be a testing opening match Saturday night.
“Fiji have been taking part in collectively for some time now, and performed within the NZU20 competitors, which signifies that they’ve hung out collectively, which ought to give them confidence.”
Currie mentioned general, the present Junior Bok squad is in a significantly better state of preparedness than they have been final yr, when that squad didn’t get pleasure from taking part in three high quality matches in Queensland.
“I should be trustworthy, we’re higher off than the place we have been final yr this time, after we have been nonetheless looking for our toes at this stage. Then most of our gamers made their debut in opposition to Georgia within the first recreation of the World Championship.
“Coming from college’s rugby, U19 and U20 provincial competitors is totally different from internationals. The margins for error are a lot smaller,” reckons Currie.
“However the Rugby Championship and this setting has taught this group that you just’ve bought to minimise your errors, as you gained’t get so many probabilities, and type out our execution on assault and defence.”
The Junior Bok crew to face Fiji can be named on Thursday.
Photograph: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Pictures
