The South African Rugby Union on Wednesday announced a large group of players to\nparticipate in the Junior Springbok trials camp early next month in Stellenbosch.\nThe trials will kick-start the process to select the Junior Springbok squad of 28\nplayers for the upcoming World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy in June.\n\nThe best local Under-20 players will assemble on Sunday, 30 March at the\nStellenbosch Academy of Sport (SAS) and will remain in camp until 2 April. This will\nbe followed by a break for the Easter holidays. The camp will feature two trial\nmatches on Tuesday 31 March and Thursday 2 April respectively at the Paul Roos\nMarkott\u00ebr Stadium.\n\nPlayers such as Thomas du Toit, Dan du Preez (both, Cell C Sharks), RG Snyman and\nWarrick Gelant (both, Vodacom Blue Bulls) who are currently busy with Vodacom Super\nRugby commitments, were excluded from the trials squad. Duhan van der Merwe (Vodacom\nBlue Bulls) and Rikus Bothma (DHL Western Province) are currently injured and were\nnot considered.\n\nFollowing the trials, a smaller group of 34 players will return to SAS on 6 April\nfor the Junior Springbok training camp. This training camp will include the\nfollowing activities:\n\n* Training exercises against the DHL Western Province Rugby Institute;\n\n* A match against a Varsity Cup select XV,\n\n* And a short tour of Argentina featuring two matches against the Los Pumitas.\n\nCommenting on the World Rugby U20 Championship preparations Junior Springboks coach\nDawie Theron said he would follow the same template as last year. The Junior\nSpringboks came agonisingly close to winning a second Junior World Championship\ntitle in three years last season but lost by a single point against defending\nchampions England in Wellington after an impressive run of results in their march\nto the Eden Park final.\n\n\"Our decision last year to keep the players together in camp for an extended time\nrather than having several shorter camps proved very successful, so we will do so\nagain this year,\" said Theron, who led the Junior Boks to their first JWC title in\n2012 and a third place finish in France in 2013. \"We were able to work with the\nplayers daily and monitor their rehabilitation in instances of injuries.\"\n\nTheron said the conditions in Italy would play a role in the selection process:\n\"Last year we went for a big, physical squad because of the heavy and wet conditions\nin New Zealand. The indications are that the field conditions in Italy will allow\nfor a faster type of game, so we will have to keep that in mind during the trials\nand in our preparations,\" said Theron.\n\nThe training match against the DHL Western Province Rugby Institute will be hosted\nat the Paul Roos Markott\u00ebr Stadium on 16 April at 15h30, while a match against a\nVarsity Cup XV is also on the cards.\n\nThe training squad will fly out to Argentina from Cape Town on 8 May and the two\nmatches against the Argentina Under-20 are pencilled in for 12 and 16 May\nrespectively. They return to South Africa the following day for a short break before\nthe official Junior Bok squad assembles on 25 May. The final squad will depart for\nthe international showpiece on 27 May.\n\nFive players who represented the Junior Boks in the 2014 JWC edition in New Zealand\nand are eligible to play for the team again this year, were invited to the trials.\nThey are: Abongile Nonkontwana (Vodacom Blue Bulls, lock), Joseph Dweba (Vodacom\nFree State Cheetahs, hooker), Dan du Preez (Cell C Sharks, lock), Jean-Luc du Preez\n(Cell C Sharks, flank), Jacques Vermeulen (DHL Western Province, eighthman).\n\nFurthermore, several players who attended the 2014 training camp but were not\nselected for the JWC in NZ, were again called up to the trials this year. They are:\nOx Nche (Toyota Free State Cheetahs, prop), Ayron Scrhamm (Cell C Sharks,\neighthman), Dan du Plessis (DHL Western Province, centre), Justin Phillips (DHL\nWestern Province, centre), Frans van Wyk (DHL Western Province, prop), EW Viljoen\n(DHL Western Province, fullback).\n\nThe following players are invited to attend the Junior Springbok trials from 29\nMarch to 2 April in Stellenbosch (province or university team, name and surname,\nposition):\n\nVodacom Blue Bulls\nMatthys Basson (prop), Warrick Gelant (centre), Njabula Gumede (prop), Dewald Human\n(flyhalf), JT Jackson (centre), Jason Jenkins (lock), Jurie Linde (centre), Jinx\nMolapo (wing), Adrian Maebane (centre), Menzi Nhlabathi (flanker), Abongile\nNonkontwana (lock), Luigy Van Jaarsveld (number eight), Alandre Van Rooyen (hooker),\nIvan Van Zyl (scrumhalf)\n\nBoland Cavaliers\nGL Erasmus (scrumhalf)\n\nEastern Province\nMalcolm Jaer (fullback), Tyler Paul (flank), CJ Velleman (flank)\n\nToyota Free State Cheetahs\nJoseph Dweba (hooker), Lorenzo Gordon (wing), Gunther Janse van Vuuren (prop),\nGerhardus Labuschagne (centre), Ox Nche (prop), Stephen Rautenbach (centre), Frans\nSteyn (Shimlas, hooker), Andre Swarts (wing), Arno van Staden (wing), Conrad van\nVuuren (prop), Reinach Venter (hooker), Jasper Wiese (number eight)\n\nXerox Golden Lions\nRuan Ackermann (lock), Marco Janse van Vuuren (scrumhalf), Le Roux Roets (lock),\nGerdus van der Walt (centre)\n\nCell C Sharks\nHyron Andrews (lock), Dan du Preez (lock), Jean-Luc du Preez (flanker), Ruan Kramer\n(prop), Rowan Gouws (scrumhalf), Mzamo Majola (prop), Ayron Scrhamm (number eight),\nInnocent Radebe (flyhalf)\n\nLeopards\nMogau Mabokela (Pukke, prop), Walt Steenkamp (Pukke, lock)\n\nDHL Western Province\nRuan Brits (hooker), Dan du Plessis (hooker), Daniel du Plessis (centre), Jaco\nCoetzee (number eight), Grant Hermanus (fullback), Michael Kumbirai (prop), Remu\nMalan (Maties, scrumhalf), Daniel Maree (flank), Ryan Oosthuizen (centre), Khanyo\nNgcukana (wing), Justin Phillips (scrumhalf), Ernst Stapelberg (flyhalf), Brandon\nThomson (flyhalf), Christo van der Merwe (Maties, flanker), Francois van der Merwe\n(prop), Frans van Wyk (prop), Jacques Vermeulen (flanker), EW Viljoen (fullback),\nEdward Zandbergh (lock), Leolin Zas (wing)<\/pre><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South African Rugby Union on Wednesday announced a large group of players to participate in the Junior Springbok trials camp early next month in Stellenbosch. The trials will kick-start the process to select the Junior Springbok squad of 28 players for the upcoming World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy in June. The best local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6448","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\/6448","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=6448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}