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Last night, before a packed Newlands Stadium, South Africa’s Baby Boks beat New Zealand’s Baby Blacks at the Under 20 World Cup. The final margin was 22 – 16 to the host but could easily have been more.
It was a fitting end to a tournament that was the most evenly contested yet, with every side involved in the tournament losing at least one game.
The aura of invincibility of the Baby Blacks was blown out of the park, first by Wales and then by South Africa.
The match itself had all the atmosphere of a Springbok versus All Blacks Test match as the hosts were given a roaring reception and the visitors the traditional South African welcome reserved usually for visiting Tri-Nations sides.
The haka, when it was performed, was literally drowned by a chorus of boo’s from the parochial one eyed South African crowd.
Right from the start the Baby Boks went on the rampage in this match. Their set piece lineouts were working beautifully and their rolling mauls had the Baby Blacks going back at a rate of knots.
Within six minutes they had marched the Baby Blacks almost 50 metres and secured three penalties from it as the visitors were forced to collapse the mauls. The third time was in kicking range and they slotted the opening 3 pointer from it.
Through a couple of penalties of their own the Baby Blacks hit back to level it 3-3. The Baby Boks shortly after had their best opportunity of the first half to score a try and got over the line only to be held up by some brilliant defence.
The Baby Blacks had infringed a couple of phases back and from a kick in front the Baby Boks slipped out to a 6-3 lead.
A few minutes later an Ihaia West hit the uprights as the Baby Blacks tried to level.
The game then ebbed and flowed, with the Baby Boks using their forward superiority and the Baby Blacks their backs superiority to try and gain an edge.
Following a kick to kick session than would have gone on for around 3 minutes, the Baby Blacks decide to run it back, and from 70 metres away, the New Zealand fullback Martin McKenzie who was great all night sliced through to put the winger Milford Keresoma in.
West slotted the conversion and the Baby Blacks took a 10-6.
The Baby Boks then hit back hard and just before half time were rewarded with a penalty to go into the shed 10-9 down.
Second half started and the Baby Blacks came out on fire. A great little chip ball through saw the Baby Bok winger in all sorts of trouble as South Africa tried to escape their own goal-line to be pinned in there and give away a 5 metre scrum.
This gave the Baby Blacks their best attacking opportunity of the game but what happened next would define this game.
The Baby Boks produced a monster scrum which saw the New Zealand scrum completely crumble which gave them a penalty. They kicked down field, won the lineout, won another penalty, another lineout and worked their way to a ruck 5 metres out from the New Zealand line.
The Baby Bok half back put a deft little kick through and just beat his counterpart to the ball to score a great team try, after looking like conceding one just 3 minutes later. The try went unconverted to give the Baby Boks a 14-10 lead.
Another West penalty cut the gap to 14-13 as the match moved towards the final quarter.
It was around this mark an ugly incident happened which saw two red cards issues. The SA lock Paul Willemse decided to help himself to a handful of New Zealand prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi’s hair and got a fist in his face for the trouble.
Given he has a hairdo Ma’a Nonu would be proud of I was surprised it took until the 58 minute mark for someone to grab a handful of it. Time to invest in a pair of clippers and lose those dreads if you want to play in the front row Ofa.
This seemed to fire the Boks up because shortly after this, Handre Pollard kicked a drop goal from 40 metre out to give the host a 17-13 lead and two minutes later the Junior Player of the Year, Jan Serfontein crossed for a try to make it 22-13 which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The next 10 minutes saw a lot of urgency from the Baby Blacks but they failed to crack a solid defence. A penalty at the 74 minute mark saw the gap closed to 22-16 and the Boks held strong for the final 5 minutes to record a brilliant victory.
This was a fitting end to the most successful IRB Junior World Cup yet. Well done to South Africa, not only for winning it but for hosting it and smashing the attendance record for a Junior World Cup final.
Commiserations to New Zealand but we can’t win them all. Its good for the game to have more competition coming through.
Lots of potential in their Baby Bok team that will no doubt feature strongly in Super Rugby and Springbok sides of the future.
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Australia finished in eighth place, losing to England despite a strong start and a 13-3 lead at half time, following two successful penalty goals by flyhalf Kyle Godwin and a converted try to captain Liam Gill.
While Australia dominated the first half it was a different story in the second, with England running in 14 un-answered points to overtake the Australians and run out 17-13 winners.
The English took seventh place thanks to the boot of Heathcote who kicked three penalty goals in the second half, while England’s Koree Britton cross for a try late in the game to complete the English comeback.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.