England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
Bafana Nhleko’s injury-hit side had lost twice to Argentina and England in their recent outings at a variety of venues following their opening night win over Fiji on June 29.
He started all three of their pool matches, packing down at openside, blindside and then No8 in the final game against the English which was where he picked up the injury that has left him sidelined.
He started all three of their pool matches, packing down at openside, blindside and then No8 in the final game against the English which was where he picked up the injury that has left him sidelined.
It's semi-finals Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship and following last Tuesday’s weather-affected schedule, the hope will be that all six matches will be played to an 80-minute conclusion unlike on match day three when there were just four and a half matches completed due to the heavy rain making pitches unplayable.
Three matches are scheduled for Athlone: Ireland-Australia (2pm local time), France-Wales (4:30pm) and South Africa-England (7pm). Over in Stellenbosch, it’s Argentina-Fiji (2pm), Georgia-Italy (4:30pm) and New Zealand-Spain (7pm).
Three matches are scheduled for Stellenbosch: Ireland vs Georgia (kick-off 2pm local), France vs New Zealand (4:30pm) and South Africa vs Argentina (7pm). Over in Athlone, Wales vs Spain is the opening match (2pm) followed by England vs Fiji (4:30pm) and Australia vs Italy (7pm).
The age-grade South Africans got their World Rugby U20 Championship off to a winning start with a 57-7 victory over Fiji last Saturday at DHL Stadium, but they have now changed two of their backline, one of their pack and altered their bench which is now made up of six forwards and two backs.
It will be round three in Athlone on July 9 when that fancied duo – last year’s beaten semi-finalists – go head-to-head in an intriguing group that also contains a dangerous Argentina and a little known Fiji.
A 43-20 win by New Zealand in round two's opening game against Argentina handed South Africa a clear benchmark against an Australian team eager to improve after a hefty round one loss.