{"id":54886,"date":"2024-07-19T12:54:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T10:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=54886"},"modified":"2024-07-19T12:54:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T10:54:16","slug":"junior-boks-finish-championship-on-positive-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=54886","title":{"rendered":"Junior Boks finish Championship on positive note"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 13: Bathobele Hlekani during the Junior Springboks training session at SAS Rugby Institute on June 13, 2024 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman\/Gallo Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Junior Springbok head coach Bafana Nhleko praised his players\u2019 dedication and character as they beat Wales to finish their 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship campaign on a positive note in Cape Town on Friday.<\/p>\n

With their pack of forwards setting the tone, the Junior Springbok regained some pride when they beat\u00a0Wales by 47-31 (half-time 19-5)\u00a0in their seventh-place playoff.<\/p>\n

The South Africans scored seven tries \u2013 six of them by the forwards \u2013 with livewire No 8 Sibabalwe Mahashe and team captain Zachary Porthen (prop) scoring a brace of five-pointers each.<\/p>\n

There were still a few soft moments, but overall, the Junior Boks can be satisfied with their performance, probably their best of the Championship, as they really made a step up after disappointing results against Argentina and England.<\/p>\n

The Junior Boks\u2019 direct approach laid the platform for the winning performance as they led 19-5 at the interval, and although they let in a couple of tries after the break, they continued to apply pressure with some impressive attacking rugby to finish the tournament on a winning note.<\/p>\n

Speaking afterwards, Nhleko praised the character of the team to bounce back after two difficult weeks, which saw them ending on the losing side three times in as many games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed with our campaign, but I must give credit to the boys, I thought they showed great character after a difficult time,\u201d said Nhleko.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did well today, created good opportunities within the plan and our execution was also a lot better despite some errors. The players showed a lot of dedication and worked hard during the past few months together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy we could finish with a good game, although not what we wanted but this is a moment in their careers \u2013 if not their entire lives \u2013 they have a lot to look forward to and I want to wish them well for their future careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A clearly pleased Porthen said he was glad they could deliver a good display in their final outing: \u201cIt felt good to give a performance like that and to finish the tournament in a high note. I think the win is a reward for the hard work the group continued to put into our preparations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to show that we were better than our recent results. The results didn\u2019t go our way the past few weeks, but I am nevertheless proud of this group,\u201d added Porthen.<\/p>\n

Issued by SA Rugby Communications<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior Springbok head coach Bafana Nhleko praised his players\u2019 dedication and character as they beat Wales to finish their 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship campaign on a positive note in Cape Town on Friday. With their pack of forwards setting the tone, the Junior Springbok regained some pride when they beat\u00a0Wales by 47-31 (half-time 19-5)\u00a0in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54886","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\/54886","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=54886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}