Paul de Villiers, Zach Porthen and Cameron Hanekom all featured for the Springboks in their Nations Championship win over England.
Junior Springbok captain Siphosethu Mnebelele. Picture: Timothy Rogers/Getty Images
The Junior Springboks are inspired by the success of a number of their former players, who are currently making waves for the Springboks, as they prepare to take on Wales in their final U20 Junior World Championship pool match in Tbilisi on Tuesday.
The current reigning world champ Junior Boks need a win over Wales, in what is effectively a shootout between the two unbeaten sides, to see who will top the pool and reach the competition knockouts.
At the same time as they are aiming to go back-to-back in Georgia, after clinching the title in Italy last year, a number of former Junior Boks are stepping up into the senior Springbok fold and impressing.
Former Junior Boks
Recent former Junior Boks Paul de Villiers, Zach Porthen and Cameron Hanekom all featured for the Springboks in their opening 45-21 Nations Championship win over England at Ellis Park at the weekend.
De Villiers (23) was making his Bok debut, Hanekom (24) picked up just his second cap and Porthen (22) his fourth, and all three are set for potentially long Bok careers.
Adding to that two, current Junior Boks, Riley Norton, who captained the team to the U20 Rugby Championship title in May, and Vusi Moyo, who featured for them during the U20 International series held in the Western Cape, are both in the Bok squad.
Norton would have made his Bok debut against England, according to coach Rassie Erasmus, who said he had planned to pick him in the match 23 for the game if he hadn’t picked up an injury in training, which ruled him out for the next few months.
Although Moyo wasn’t selected to face England, and was not in the Springbok team for their match against Scotland at Loftus this weekend, he could be in line to get a crack against Wales in Durban next week.
Job at hand
Speaking at the Junior Bok team announcement on Sunday, captain Siphosethu Mnebelele, who was picked to lead the side after Norton’s Bok call-up, admitted the success of their former players inspired them, but he said their focus was currently on the job at hand, which was beating Wales and qualifying for the semifinals.
“First of all, we are very happy for those guys. Especially a guy like Riley who most of us know personally, so when you see the recognition they are getting you get seriously happy for them,” said Mnebelele.
“It does light a fire and inspire us. But in the environment that we are currently in it is important for us to go away from our own goals and hopes, and focus more on what is in front of us and what we are trying to achieve at the moment.
“We all have those dreams and aspirations (to become Springboks), so seeing their success does light a fire in us and make us believe that we can also get there as well if we are willing to put in the hard work. But our biggest focus now is making sure we do well here.
“It’s a very important game obviously, the last game of the pool stage. So we just want to focus on playing our best rugby and hopefully emerging with the result that we want, because we want to make it into the play-offs.”
