Junior Boks embracing 2012 ‘elephant’

As South Africa prepares to host the World U20 Championship for the first time since winning it on home soil, the Junior Springboks are taking inspiration from the class of 2012.

The Junior Springboks last hosted the U20 Championship in 2012, when they went all the way to win the title, beating New Zealand in the final at Newlands.

That remains the last time that the Junior Boks won the tournament, as they have had to settle for silver and bronze medals since.

“It’s the elephant in the room, so you can’t really ignore it,” said coach Bafana Nhleko. “We must understand that the fact that we are hosting the tournament again after winning it here last time isn’t a weight on our shoulders, but instead, it’s something that serves as an inspiration.

“The reality is that we haven’t won the competition in a very long time. We can’t approach the tournament with this extraordinary expectation, but we can draw motivation from the class of 2012.”

Junior Bok captain and loose forward Paul de Villiers is confident of emulating the efforts of the team with the likes of Steven Kitshoff, Handre Pollard, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Jan Serfontein.

“Playing at home is not extra pressure; it’s rather extra motivation. It’s nice to have a World Cup on home soil,” said De Villiers.

“It’s definitely extra motivation. Eleven years later, we are in the same shoes. It’s nice to be able to think and dream about where we can be in 11 years.

“We are going to give it our all, and we want to play in that final on July 14 and hold the trophy up. We will not let each other down.”

A bulk of the current squad comes from the classes of 2020 and 2021, who had their high school seasons cut short by a national lockdown.

However, that is something the Junior Boks have turned into a positive as they have tried to close the developmental gap with the northern hemisphere teams.

“We have put a lot of focus on our skills, especially with the weather playing a role, and we need to be adaptable depending on the type of games being played,” said Nhleko.

“Our players haven’t played at U18 level and don’t have that experience at an international level, so the task for us is to condition them for what U20 Test rugby can look like.

“Something I really admire is the willingness of the so-called Covid-19 generation to learn. Because they couldn’t really play at school, they weren’t challenged and put under pressure all the time because they couldn’t play those derby games.

“As a coach, it is a challenge to address all those core aspects because they are not used to it. We are blessed with the type of schools and structures we have at that level in South Africa. It’s about those single adjustments to bridge the gap.”

The Junior Springboks begin their campaign against Georgia at the Danie Craven Stadium on June 24.