The Baby Boks managed to finish fifth place at the IRB Junior World Championship in Italy on Sunday, after demolishing Fiji 104 – 17 in the Fifth place final, and so end their campaign on a semi high note. The Bokkies scored 16 tries to the two managed by the Fijians.
Bulls eighthman and Captain Arno Botha scored three tries, while Tshotsho Mbovane, Jaco Taute and Pieter Rademan each chipped in with two tries while the balance was scored by Nizaam Carr, Wandile Mjekevu, Francois Venter, Sharks flanker Francois Kleinhans, Sharks utility back Paul Jordaan and Courtnall Skosan. A penalty try was also awarded, in case you were doing the maths.
Johan Goosen kicked 12 of the conversion attempts and managed to score 79 points during the two week tournament.
The result will be seen as a disappointment as the team failed to make the all important top four semi finals, after a loss to England in the last of the pool games.
Scorers:
South Africa U20 – Tries: Arno Botha (3), Tshotsho Mbovane (2), Jaco Taute (2), Pieter Rademan (2), Nizaam Carr, Wandile Mjekevu, Francois Venter, Francois Kleinhans, Paul Jordaan, Courtnall Skosan, Penalty Try; Conversions: Johan Goosen (12).
Fiji U20 – Tries: Eliki Sicinilwaw, Semi Radradra; Conversions: Josateki Lalagavesi; Penalty: Lalagavesi
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Too little too late, we needed the points difference in the Ireland and Scotland games!!! This just frustrates me more 👿
@molly (Comment 1) : agree with you.
I’m amazed that Venter only scored one try in this game… means one of two things (in decreasing order of likelihood)
1) Botha was too busy playing glory boy to pass the ball to the backline
2) Venter actually worked out that a 12 is supposed to pass and started doing so.
@robdylan (Comment 2) : hahaha to point #2, he is not a passer, reckon they maybe played “skip”? I mean, Taute did get two of em, better than all the other 13’s they’ve tried in the tourney.
@molly (Comment 1) : @robdylan (Comment 2) : Paul The ‘bush master’ Jordaan with all the that endless hype
and JP nel wannabe bradley moolman were not good enough to be venter’s partner….taute should have played in the england game…venter did not trust jordaan and moolman who both rather looked nervous…tentative..overeager and average i’m afraid 😕 
Arno Botha performed waaaayyyyy better than stander don’t hate appreciate the man is a try scoring machine the bulls will have a powerful under 21 side watch out 😉
Francois Venter atleast is making the step up unlike the golden boytjie and his teammate at grey college at outside centre piet lindeque who still can not tackle i heard
@Muzi (Comment 4) : Taute was in the England game, he got runover on the way to an England try. He was playing fullback though, not 13.
As for not trusting, Venter never even bothered looking outside him, so don’t think he had a clue what the 13’s were up to.
@Muzi (Comment 5) : Call me old fashioned but I like an inside centre that can pass and has vision, not one that likes to run it up head first without any questions, he’s just lucky he’s bigger than most other centres at the moment, good luck when he plays in the big leagues.
@Muzi: where do you rate mbovane on the list of young centres?
@Muzi (Comment 4) : ja, but they were playing Fiji mate… where was his power when we needed it against England?
@molly (Comment 7) : +1
@robdylan (Comment 10) :
What’s with the +1??
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 11) : Its a google thing, gives you better search results listings 😉
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 11) : means I agree 🙂
@molly (Comment 12) :
@robdylan (Comment 13) :
I see.. technologically challenged, I am..
@robdylan (Comment 2) : Good one Rob. 😀
@beet (Comment 15) : thanks 🙂
@beet: where do you rate mbovane in the pecking order of young sa centres (18 – 21)?
@Muzi (Comment 5) : Muzi, unfortunately this is of concern because we all know that on the opposite side of the scale is Bradley Moolman who is one of the most capable tacklers in SA but was unfortunately out of his depth in other departments during the JWC.
I think we really need to improve the structures in SA to give the coach a better idea of who the form players are ahead of the JWC.
Quite obviously Williams and Lindeque did not perform in that trial match against WP earlier in the season but they were the form players last year. Coach Theron reacted to the poor performance by immediately replacing the Sharks boys by the likes of Michael van der Spuy, who looked very avg in 2010.
I think what Theron really needed was to be able to see these candidates in action on a weekly basis in a strength for strength compo instead of relying on closed shop camps and a tour to Argentian (by which time it was probably too late to make changes).
I know the Varsity Cup u20 in 2012 will go part of the way to solving this problem but I hope it’s something that gets addressed as an urgent matter.
@bergshark (Comment 17) : So hard to say Bergshark. When you come from a powerhouse school like Paul Roos, you get a lot of ball coming your way and you probably only spend 1/3 of your time defending.
I’d say lets see how he goes in the juniors this season and then try to assess him against a Juan de Jongh. Also lets not focus too much attention on what he does with ball in hand coz we know how good he is in this dept. Lets see what he offers on D.
I have a feeling we’ll see him on the wing as opposed to centre because of concerns over defensive capabilities.
@bergshark (Comment 17) : I say de Jongh coz of his size.
The juniors start in a couple of weeks time, so it’s a great time to see the next Sadie, Cooper, Etsebeth or van Aswegen in action. Basically a guy who comes from somewhere deep within the peleton to become the breakaway leader in his possie. Hmmm! Reminds me that another great sporting event is about to begin in July. 🙂
@beet (Comment 20) : who’s Cooper?
@beet:hope the coaches spend time on paul jordaan’s D.another blogger on here also placed ? over lindeque’s ? Do you think there is a problem there?
@beet:did you see jp du plessis (prg in 2010)play?is he still under contract at the rebels for 2012?
@beet:hope the coaches spend time on paul jordaan’s D.another blogger on here also placed ? over lindeque’s ? Do you think there is a problem there?
@beet:did you see jp du plessis (prg in 2009)play?is he still under contract at the rebels for 2012?
@bergshark:eish ,what went wrong now???
@robdylan (Comment 21) : Rob, okay I confess Kyle (Cooper) made a name for himself before 2010 but he didn’t go to Craven Week and now he’s way ahead of any of the elite hookers out of the class of 2007.
@beet (Comment 25) : oh – see what you mean 🙂
Thought it was Kyle, but couldn’t figure out how he fitted in
@beet: now only if you were in charge of recruiting,then sadie might have been a shark.
@bergshark (Comment 22) : There’s another blogger – Boerseun – who seems to know a bit about JP du Plessis. I think he was class of 2009 tho. There will be a different JP du Plessis from HTS Middelburg playing for the Lions in this year’s u19 CC. He was a 108kg monster centre last year at school.
All the guys coming out of school need to be worked on including Steven Kitshoff, the WP loosehead also from Paul Roos who’s achieved the best of the lot so far. Every player is a W-I-P and every player will develop at a different pace. Some guys rightfully should be fast-tracked but there is no harm in only making it to senior level rugby when you’re 23 or 24.
Also many of the players that were very special as schoolboys will amount to avg or below avg players and a lot will hang up their boots at/after u21 level.
@beet (Comment 28) : agree with you… and there’s nothing more harmful than seeing a gifted schoolboy and jumping to conclusions that he’s going to be a sensation at senior level a year or two later.
Pat and Fransie have shown us that it CAN happen, but it’s the exception, rather than the rule. To be honest, I think the Stormers are playing ast and loose with players’ futures by blooding 19-year-old front-rankers in Super Rugby.
@beet:thanks.hope that 108kg centre knows how to pass,though lol jake white was going on about how the strenght of sa rugby has always been our school boys rugby..must be the same then in nz .what about eng?they’ve also stepped up at junior level.
But what is not mentioned by jake white is the lack of some very basic skills in our senoir players which must be a reflection of their junior (schools coaching ).
@bergshark (Comment 30) : didn’t Murray Mexted just say exactly the same thing?
oh LOL… BookFace has just suggested I add Courtnall Skosaan as a friend.
That can only go wrong 🙂
@robdylan:what part?the talent of the youngsters or the lack of basic coaching some exhibit?
@bergshark (Comment 33) : lak of skills of our juniors.
Seems oom Dawie couldn’t think any further than just picking the biggest guys he could find.
@robdylan: sad that we are so obseesed with size at the cost of skill 🙁 if only players like deysel ,bissie,alberts,mossie ,schalk burger(he has a shocking passing tecnique..!),were taught and drilled,drilled,drilled to draw and pass,offload in the tackle as youngsters.but I guess that falls under “individual skills of the kiwis ande aussies are so much better “.:-(
Catch,run with the ball in two hands,draw,pass.repeat.repeat.repeat.how difficult is that?
@robdylan (Comment 31) : Chatted to him the other day.
@SharonvanWyk (Comment 37) : Was he sober? He use to be a witty commentator once upon a time before he lost the plot a bit.
@SharonvanWyk (Comment 37) : I’ll be the namedropper around here, thank you very much 🙂
@beet: I liked his commentary 🙂
@robdylan:comment39: 😀
@beet:you going to do some articles on craven week for sharksworld?
@beet: how do they select the various cw teams?shouldn’t dawie theron be there and involved?…or rather not..:-(
@all the bots online: comment:-)
@bergshark (Comment 42) : it would be nice to preview the KZN/WP opener, since we have so many W/Cape bloggers here amongst us at SW.
Mexted use to be my fav commentator once upon a time, then he forgot to learn rule changes and started making irrelevant comments. He became very annoying.
@beet:kzn vs weepee sounds like a game to look fwd to..!do our boys stand a chance though?
why is it the teams seem to do better in overall after and not when it must matter
@chaz: dunno,but don’t like that “when our back is to the wall then we fight”attitude.we must be the ones that have other teams with their backs to the wall.we must be setting the pace.(Angry,disillusioned shark face)
@chaz: but hey,how was your day ? 😀
@Muzi: where you??
@bergshark (Comment 48) : [email protected]bergshark (Comment 49) : my day great but now i’m so dame cold can’t even have a glass of wine and my hands are freezing
@bergshark (Comment 46) : We’ll go in as underdogs and hopefully come out as winners.
@beet (Comment 52) : 😆
@beet: good answer 🙂
@chaz: aww sorry chaz.rather have a warm cup of milo or hot choc .
@[email protected]: I’m outta here,time to go sleep.have a great evening 🙂