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Junior Springbok captain Paul de Villiers is amongst a group of seven players that will represent the South African Under-20 team for a second year running after being named in the starting team to face Georgia in their World Rugby U20 Championship opener in Stellenbosch on Saturday.<\/p>\n
De Villiers made his Junior Bok debut in the U20 Six Nations Summer Series in Italy last year, along with the team\u2019s vice-captain Katlego Letebele, Gcinokuhle Mdletshe, Juann Else, Corn\u00e9 Lavagna, Imad Khan and Neil le Roux. All seven were included in the match day squad for the host union\u2019s match at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch.<\/p>\n
Junior Springbok head coach Bafana Nhleko included five uncapped players in his starting backline and six in the pack, with Lavagna, Mdletshe and Le Roux playing off the bench.<\/p>\n
Nhleko said aside from their experience, the capped players had to show the necessary form to make the starting team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need their experience of playing test rugby,\u201d said Nhleko. \u201cWe do not have a lot of players with that experience because as a side, we don\u2019t play many matches against international teams, and we are going to need them to guide us on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to note that they had to select themselves in terms of their abilities and be the best in their position as well as having the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nhleko hopes to give as many players as possible an opportunity to experience international rugby over the first two matches, but also had Georgia in mind in naming his match day squad: \u201cWe have seen them play and there are a couple of things we hope to do against them, but as important for us will be to have the whole squad on the same page throughout the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
With heavy rain having fallen in the region in recent weeks, Nhleko said he is not too concerned about the conditions, but rather about Georgia as an opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been lucky to train in these really wet conditions over the last two weeks or so, but they don\u2019t call these test matches for nothing \u2013 we will be challenged by Georgia and how we respond will be crucial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be able to adapt to the situation at that moment, whether it is the weather or what Georgia throw at us, and I think we have a group that will be able to react to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that they are hosting the tournament is not a hindrance to the Junior Boks, according to Nhleko, who added that his team will be ready on Saturday: \u201cPlaying at home is motivation and not a burden. The guys want to play in front of family and friends and have locals to support them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly though, they will be playing for each other as a group. If we do the right things, the momentum and support will grow as we go along.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaches will always tell you they need more time, but I think we are ready to play. There is only so much that you can do as coaches and management after all. There will be some nerves, but I think come Saturday this team will be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Junior Springbok team to face Georgia in Stellenbosch:<\/strong><\/p>\n 15 Hakeem Kunene,\u00a014 Jurenzo Julius,\u00a013 Katlego Letebele (vice-captain),\u00a012 Ethan Hooker,\u00a011 Masande Mtshali,\u00a010 Jean Smith,\u00a09 Imad Khan,\u00a08 Abulele Ndabambi,\u00a07 Ghudian van Reenen,\u00a06 Paul de Villiers (captain),\u00a05 JF van Heerden,\u00a04 Coetzee le Roux,\u00a03 Mawande Mdanda,\u00a02 Juann Else, 1 Phatu Ganyane. Replacements: <\/strong>16 SJ Kotze,\u00a017 Corn\u00e9 Lavagna,\u00a018 Zachary Porthen,\u00a019 Jannes Potgieter,\u00a020 Gcinokuhle Mdletshe, 21 Neil le Roux,\u00a022 Damian Markus, 23 Michael Annies.<\/p>\n Match information \u2013 South Africa vs Georgia<\/strong><\/p>\n Venue: Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch Issued by SA Rugby Communications<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Junior Springbok captain Paul de Villiers is amongst a group of seven players that will represent the South African Under-20 team for a second year running after being named in the starting team to face Georgia in their World Rugby U20 Championship opener in Stellenbosch on Saturday. De Villiers made his Junior Bok debut in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDate: Saturday, 24 June 2023
\nKick-off: 19h00
\nReferee: Ben Breakspear (Wales)
\nTV: SuperSport (Grandstand)<\/p>\n