Baby Boks through to JWC final

The Baby Boks recorded a surprisingly comfortable 35-3 win over Argentina in the Junior World Cup semi-finals.

Argentina never looked settled and right from the start their captain Sebastian Poet’s early missed attempts at goal along with his poor clearance kicks from deep within his own half seemed to have a ripple effect throughout the team who made far too many mistakes and never seemed to have any luck on their side either.

The game was pretty much over as a contest by the half-time hooter when impressive reserve wing Raymond Rhule crossed for a try following the most outstanding play of the game involving several phases executed at pace.

Before that tries by the in-form Jan Serfontein and hooker Mark Pretorius had got the home troops off to the perfect start while Pollard added the balance with the boot.

Rhule added another well worked try compliments of a pop pass from Handre Pollard shortly after the break to extend the lead to 29-3.

Thereafter match gradually turned scrappy as the Baby Boks rightfully took their foot off the peddle in order to preserve themselves for the final against New Zealand. There was however still a major injury concern to captain William Small-Smith, who had to be helped off the pitch. Along with Paul Jordaan who limped off very early on in the game, there are now legitimate worries about the outside centre berth.

Scrums and lineouts showed much improvement over the efforts put in against Ireland and England, however with the downgrade in the quality of the opposition, it’s hard to gauge whether or not the problems are entirely sorted out and this is possibly the area where most work still has to be put in ahead of the final on Friday 22 June (06:45pm).