{"id":7662,"date":"2017-06-14T12:31:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/junior-boks-pick-themselves-up-for-bronze-playoff\/"},"modified":"2017-06-14T12:31:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:31:48","slug":"junior-boks-pick-themselves-up-for-bronze-playoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=7662","title":{"rendered":"Junior Boks pick themselves up for bronze playoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-7598\" src=\"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JuniorSpringboks.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"220\" alt=\"JuniorSpringboks\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; float: left;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JuniorSpringboks.jpg 768w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JuniorSpringboks-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JuniorSpringboks-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/>Junior Springbok assistant coach Louis Koen, who also fulfils the role as SA Rugby&rsquo;s acting High Performance manager, reiterated that the team had learned harsh lessons from their defeat against England and said they would pick themselves up for the bronze play-off against France on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Junior Springboks went down 24-22 with a brave fight against England in the semi-final of the World Rugby U20 Championship at the M.Meskhi stadium on Tuesday with a late try by the defending champions sealing the two-point victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The SA U20&rsquo;s will face France in the third and fourth place playoff following their 39-26 defeat in the second semi-final on Tuesday.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&ldquo;We had opportunities against England, but we also had soft moments and could not put them under enough pressure to convert into points,&rdquo; Koen said after the match review.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&ldquo;I believe we have all learnt a lot from this experience. There were harsh lessons learned in the match, but I know that all of us will take it to heart and we will be better for it in the future.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Koen stressed that the campaign was not over yet and said the team still had an opportunity to finish the tournament on a high note by securing the bronze medal, and he was excited by the prospect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&ldquo;We need to continue doing what we have been doing up to now in the lead-up to our final match,&rdquo; said Koen.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&ldquo;We believe in our structures, and we are on the right track and growing as a team. Our forward play, especially, has been phenomenal, and when our backline fires they are exceptional. So we have to go back to the drawing board and improve.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&ldquo;We still have a lot to prove and to play for, so once we put the England match behind us, we will lift our heads, be positive and look forward to the France game. All of these players want to do justice to the Springbok jersey,&#8221; said Koen.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There were a few bumps and bruises from the match, but the medical team was still evaluating the situation on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Issued by SA Rugby Communications<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Junior Springbok assistant coach Louis Koen, who also fulfils the role as SA Rugby&rsquo;s acting High Performance manager, reiterated that the team had learned harsh lessons from their defeat against England and said they would pick themselves up for the bronze play-off against France on Sunday. The Junior Springboks went down 24-22 with a brave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7662","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\/7662","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=7662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}