UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Baby Boks need win after going from bad to worse
It is six years since the Junior Springboks won their only World Rugby Under-20 Champions title and over the past few seasons the graph is getting worse‚ not better. On Tuesday the Junior Boks lost 32-31 to England in the semifinals of the 2018 edition of the tournament‚ being played in France. It was a narrow defeat but in the cold light of day suffering a fifth straight loss to England highlighted a trend rather than a one-off setback. It was also SA’s second defeat of the tournament after they were resounding 46-29 losers to hosts France in their final pool match last week. Any team can have an off year but despite some amazing talent and some of the best schoolboy rugby in the world‚ SA seems to be hitting a ceiling at the semifinal stage of this tournament. It might be an acceptable return for some countries‚ but for SA the Under-20s should win this tournament more often. Back when there was an Under-21 World Championship the Junior Boks won it three times between 1999 and 2007...
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