Baby Boks must do or die vs England in IRB JWC

Starting at 16h45 on Sunday, 09 June the SA under-20 team faces a critical challenge at the IRB Junior World Champions in France when they play England. Although it’s defined as a pool match, it’s is a knockout game of sorts, from which the winners placing themselves in a very strong position to advance to the semi-finals and the losers facing the distinct probability of being eliminated from the first place chase.

Whenever one talks about the JWC, its important to discuss the unforgiving format. There are 3 pools. The winner of each pool is guaranteed a place in the semi-finals. However only 1 out of the 3 second placed pool finishers earns the right to advance to the top 4 semi-finals. This essentially means that teams are not just competing against those in the respective pools, they are also in a race to outperform rivals in the other pools, especially if they lose a match a long the way. In this regard, Pool C contains Argentina and Wales who look set to continue their domination of that group today by picking up bonus points wins against Samoa and Scotland respectively. That would put them both on 10 points ahead of their pool 1st place decider against each other on Thursday, 13 June. There will be opportunity for the loser of that encounter to grow their points to 11 via the losing bonus point but for now, once can assume that 10 points is the benchmark for the second placed teams in Pools A and B to aim to equal or better if they want to entertain any hopes of getting into the semi-finals.

For today’s Baby Boks game, there is a perception that the men in Green and Gold are smaller than their English rivals . The stats suggest that in the pack the teams are more or less the same size. The English pack weights 892kgs with an average height of 1.90m. SA comes in at 896kg with an average height of 1.91m. England at 350kg will have a 9kg weight advantage in the front row. However here technique will be the issue more than size with England generally being really good scrummers at this level and the Baby Boks having been found out a few times in the past. One can assume that there will a lot of pressure on loosehead Andrew Beerwinkel, who now has to step up and prove that he is not the weak link in that SA front row. At lock, England also hold a significant combined height advantage of 6cm. Life in the lineouts will be very difficult if SA hooker Jacques du Toit and his jumpers don’t get the calls and the syncing spot on today. Du Toit might also be asked to throw to the back a lot more where with big 2.01m tall Jacques du Plessis, the Baby Boks do have a significant height advantage, be it du Plessis doing the catching or lifting of tail jumpers. Either way, du Toit is going to have to be close on 100% accurate today. Aside from setpieces, the battle for possession can just as easily be won or lost in broken play at the breakdown. The ability to contest for ball on the deck is an area of uncertainty for the Baby Boks still. There will be no better test of their pedigree in this crucial department than today’s one.

In the backline, the general feeling is that the Boks have more to offer than the Lilywhites on attack. There are speed, creativity, sound hands and bash options available to the SA team. Good tactical kicking out of hand shouldn’t be an issue either. However the question-marks may come on defence. England are bound to target at the 13 channel guarded by slightly built Justin Geduld as a potential weak point in the defensive structure. There is also the height disadvantage of fullback Cheslin Kolbe, which might be viewed as a reason for the Poms to launch a well-contested aerial assault against the 1.71m short fullback. Either way the resolve of the respective sets of backs on defence might have more of an impact on the outcome than what they have to offer on attack, depending on the attack-mindedness of the strategies employed today. No doubt this match will be an enthralling one and will certainly contribute to SA public’s still undecided opinion about Dawie Theron’s credentials as head coach.

SA u20

ENGLAND u20

POOLS AND FIXTURES