Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Amazing': The post-match message from Junior Springboks to Ireland

(Photo by World Rugby via Getty Images)

Bafana Nhleko found time in the aftermath of his biggest win as the Junior Springboks head coach to send his condolences to the grieving Ireland, the team that South Africa will face in this Sunday’s Junior World Championship semi-final in Athlone.

ADVERTISEMENT

Given the personal level of abuse that Nhleko and his South African U20s had to endure since last week’s humiliating pool defeat to Italy in Paarl, it would have been easy in the time shortly after his team’s pool-topping victory over Argentina on Tuesday night for him to be selfish and bask in the glow of his reputation-restoring comeback victory.

Instead, he was mindful of next weekend’s semi-final opponents and the bereavement they suffered on Monday afternoon when ex-Scotland Test scrum-half Greig Oliver, the father of Ireland scrum-half Jack, was tragically killed in a paragliding accident in Cape Town.

Video Spacer

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

Video Spacer

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

“Very sad with the news that came out of the Irish camp recently and condolences to them and their families,” said Nhleko to RugbyPass. “I can imagine it can’t be easy for them. They have played some amazing rugby, them and the French, throughout the tournament. They are the two best teams to be fair and we are expecting a tough, tough game.”

Match day three at the tournament – the final round of pool matches – provided a feast of entertainment across the six matches and when the dust settled, the Junior Springboks were the last southern hemisphere nation standing.

A win for Argentina – and they had that in the grasp when leading for most of their Pool C match in Athlone – was set to leave Georgia winning the pool and that would have completed an all-European semi-final line-up for the first time ever at the Junior World Championship. Instead, the last-four pairings wound up with France versus England and with the Irish taking on their greatly relieved tournament hosts.

It’s a three-to-one hemisphere divide that Nhleko doesn’t argue against. “Absolutely, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. For various reasons, the southern hemisphere sides have struggled, but we got the luck of the draw in terms of the pool and things have just worked out. It could have very much been an all-northern hemisphere semi-finals but we have got an opportunity and it is up to us to use it.”

ADVERTISEMENT

They were fortunate as they trailed Argentina 7-16 at the break and could have wobbled, but a late second-half flourish swept them to a 24-16 victory to vindicate the fate Nhleko still had in his team despite last week’s shock loss to Italy prompting an outpouring of vitriol from parts of the South African rugby public.

Asked what his message at half-time was with his team trailing the Argentinians by nine points, he said: “Extremely colourful, but we said to the boys we are still very much in the game. We were just a penalty, three points away from getting back into it. We sense when we keep ball in hand that we have got a good team – we just needed to keep hold of it and put pressure on.

“I’m very happy to get the win, especially in front of a very passionate Athlone crowd. I thought the second 40 was very good for us. Tough, tough first 40, same gremlins with discipline being an issue.

“But you could see the energy (of the crowd), you could feel it as the game and momentum started turning. Our players need to play well for that to happen and hopefully the fans will now come out in numbers for next Sunday’s game and really get behind the team.”

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

1 Comment
J
James 503 days ago

What an amazing young man to speak so sincerely and actually encourage the Irish to play in athlone against south Africa. I absolutely take his comments at face value he is a good person and rugby is a family and a sport with a very high ethnic..... Ireland will look forward to the challenge in spite of our several tragedies recently and athlone will be like home for Ireland.... I am old enough to remember that athlone was where you tuned in to hear Ireland on the radio 📻.... there's no place like it :) 😉
It will be a terrific game.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh
Search