A determined comeback in the period just before and after halftime was unfortunately not good enough for the SA Under-20 training squad who suffered a 42-27 defeat against Argentina Under-20 in their second tour match at the Club Taragui in Corrientes in the northeast of Argentina.<\/p>\n
Los Pumitas raced into a 26-0 lead on Thursday night (SA time) after they dominated the first half hour of play, but South Africa fought back to cut the deficit to 26-12 at halftime thanks to tries by Irn\u00e9 Herbst (lock) and Jacques Rossouw (fullback).<\/p>\n
South Africa continued their fight back after the break, which saw Sylvian Mahuza (replacement fullback) and Seabelo Senatla (left wing) crossing over for two more tries (26-24).<\/p>\n
However, the Argentine youngsters then staged a comeback of their own after they were held scoreless for a while by the tourists. Three penalties by ace kicker Patricio Fernandez and a very good converted try by Emiliano Boffelli (replacement fullback) allowed the hosts to finally wrestle themselves free from the SA grip to register a 42-26 win which was wildly celebrated by the players and spectators alike.<\/p>\n
Los Pumitas pivot Fernandez capped a very good individual performance by scoring 27 points. He was deadly accurate with the boot and landed three conversions, six penalties and a drop goal.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, SA Under-20 coach Dawie Theron said the team was disappointed they could not maintain the pressure on the home team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a good start and managed to keep possession and momentum for a long period in the first half,\u201d said Theron.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought back very well before and after halftime but they managed to regain the upper hand just before the end. The guys would have a learnt a lot from the experience and we are looking forward to what promises to be another tough challenge on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The visitors travelled to Buenos Aires on Thursday morning (Argentinean time), where they will play their final clash of their three match tour at the La Plata CR grounds.<\/p>\n
Both teams are using the international series as preparation for the IRB Junior World Championship 2013 which will be held during June in France.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday the South Africans opened their tour with a 26-3 victory over an Argentine XV in Corrientes after trailing 3-0 at halftime and in difficult, wet conditions.<\/p>\n
Los Pumitas were one of the surprise packages of JWC 2012 with victories over France and Australia taking them to a first ever semi-final and ultimately fourth place finish after defeats by hosts South Africa and Wales. The Junior<\/p>\n
Springboks won the JWC title for the first time when they defeated four-time winners New Zealand before a packed DHL Newlands Stadium.<\/p>\n
Argentina will face Wales, Scotland and Samoa in Pool D at JWC 2013 with only the winner guaranteed a place in the semi-finals. The defending champions, South Africa, face England, France and the USA in Pool A.<\/p>\n
The scorers:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Argentina U20 42 (26) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: Lucas Noguera, Paz Joacquin, Emiliano Bofelli. Conversions: Patricio Fernandez (3). Penalties: Fernandez (6). Drop goal: Fernandez. SA U20 training group 27 (12) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: Irn\u00e9 Herbst, Jacques Rossouw, Sylvian Mahuza, Seabelo Senatla. Conversions: Handr\u00e9 Pollard (2). Penalty: Pollard.<\/p>\n Issued by SARU Corporate Affairs<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A determined comeback in the period just before and after halftime was unfortunately not good enough for the SA Under-20 training squad who suffered a 42-27 defeat against Argentina Under-20 in their second tour match at the Club Taragui in Corrientes in the northeast of Argentina. Los Pumitas raced into a 26-0 lead on Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26578","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}