Junior Boks’ opening world champs win against Fiji built on forward power

The Junior Springboks' impressive opening 2024 World Rugby U-20 Championship win against Fiji was built on a solid performance by their hard-working pack of forwards, coach Bafana Nhleko said.

The South Africans put up a strong showing, running out 57-7 winners at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. They scored eight tries and bar some second half lapses in concentration and a yellow card to Jurenzo Julius, played with commitment and purpose throughout.

Nhleko said his team did well to secure a strong win against a physical Fiji by doing the basics right.

“We took some time to get going in the opening minutes, did well to stick to our fundamentals and then get the job done,” he said.

“We will take the win; there are [things to] work on but we know it will get tougher with Argentina and England in our pool, who are two physical and well-drilled teams on attack and at the set piece.”

Nhleko said the foundation was a good display by his forwards.

Lock Bathobele Hlekani caught the eye with two strong runs in quick succession to set up first-half tries.

“We spoke in the week about our set piece and how important it would be to be disciplined and stick to our structure, so I’m glad we could do that.”

The coach said he intends to give the wider match-day squad playing time. The South Africa U-20s meet Argentina in their second pool game on Thursday and with that in mind it was important to keep an eye on player load management.

“It's going to be important to manage the load of the squad throughout the tournament and we could do that today [Saturday], thanks to the good platform provided by the pack.

“We learnt harsh lessons in the past so we must get the balance right. We will keep the spine together as we look at managing the squad because the Argentinians are a tough, physical team.”

Replacement scrumhalf Ezekiel Ngobeni was stretchered off after a collision late in the second half.

“He was taken to hospital for a check-up but he is OK, he is a warrior,” Nhleko said.

The team had a recovery session on Sunday and resumed training on Monday.