The Junior Springboks are leaving no stone unturned as they put together for Saturday’s U20 World Championship opener in opposition to Fiji at Cape City Stadium.
The SA U20 aspect moved into their official event base within the Mom Metropolis from their house base in Stellenbosch, and instantly went about their enterprise with a day session in opposition to their Australian counterparts on the Hamilton rugby membership grounds in Sea Level.
The time has come ⏰
The #JuniorBoks will kick-start their #WorldRugbyU20s marketing campaign on Saturday. Tickets can be found at Ticketmaster: #JourneyToGreatness pic.twitter.com/N3RjXcFD2i
— SA Junior Rugby (@SAJuniorRugby) June 24, 2024
Chatting with native media shortly after the workforce had checked into their event workforce resort, assistant coach Lumumba Currie mentioned the main target of workforce for this week is to fantastic tune their preparations for the sport in opposition to Fiji.
“We’ve been collectively for 4 weeks now, and the blokes are wanting sharp in camp. We’ve had a few coaching video games in opposition to the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport Rugby Institute (Sasri), which was an excellent factor for us as we would have liked to get that contact health,” added Currie.
The previous weekend the workforce additionally had a exercise in opposition to New Zealand on the Sanlam Boland Stadium in Wellington, which additionally proved invaluable for the upcoming showpiece.
“That can give us a greater preventing likelihood within the competitors as a result of we performed three worldwide matches within the (lately staged U20 Rugby) Championship, which is one thing we by no means had earlier than, and should you be mindful the European groups would have a Six Nations below their belt earlier than arriving right here,” the Junior Boks forwards coach mentioned.
The Fijian aspect will encompass gamers who performed within the Pacific and New Zealand U20 competitions, which suggests they’re battle hardened and have a workforce with settled mixtures.
It is because of this that, in response to Currie, the Junior Boks will choose their greatest accessible match squad for what will probably be a testing opening match Saturday night.
“Fiji have been enjoying collectively for some time now, and performed within the NZU20 competitors, which signifies that they’ve frolicked collectively, which ought to give them confidence.”
Currie mentioned general, the present Junior Bok squad is in a a lot better state of preparedness than they had been final 12 months, when that squad didn’t benefit from enjoying three high quality matches in Queensland.
“I should be trustworthy, we’re higher off than the place we had been final 12 months this time, after we had been nonetheless looking for our toes at this stage. Then most of our gamers made their debut in opposition to Georgia within the first sport of the World Championship.
“Coming from faculty’s rugby, U19 and U20 provincial competitors is totally different from internationals. The margins for error are a lot smaller,” reckons Currie.
“However the Rugby Championship and this surroundings has taught this group that you simply’ve received to minimise your errors, as you gained’t get so many possibilities, and kind out our execution on assault and defence.”
The Junior Bok workforce to face Fiji will probably be named on Thursday.
Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Photos
