It wasn’t pretty, but the Junior Springboks did enough to beat Argentina on Tuesday to reach the semi-finals of the World Rugby Under 20 Championship.
Durban — It was painful to watch for their supporters but the South African under-20s came good in the final quarter of their match against Argentina to win 24-16 and sneak into the semi-finals of the World Rugby Championship.
The Baby Boks will play Ireland in one semi-final and the other is between France and England. Both semis are on Sunday.
The two teams went into the match off the back of shock losses, the Baby Boks to Italy (34-26) and the Argentinians to Georgia (20-0). That meant everything was on the line in this last pool game, with both teams needing a win to qualify for the semi-finals.
In the first half, it looked like it would be the South Americans who would prevail, even if they had a strong wind at their backs. They outmuscled their opponents in all facets of the game, especially the scrums and the line-outs and their domination forced the home team to concede a torrent of penalties.
Flyhalf Valentino Dicapua kicked his team into a 9-0 lead before Bok hooker Juan Else smashed over, only for the Pumas to hit straight back with a try.
They led 16-7 at halftime and they looked in control — their forwards were on top and the execution of the basics by the South Africans was poor.
The home team began the second half on a positive note, with Smith kicking a penalty. They kept making mistakes, particularly with their kicking game as they tried to take advantage of the wind, but they slowly but surely gained the ascendancy.
The South Africans took the lead for the first time in the 69th minute when rugged No.8 Corne Beets powered over for a try. He replicated that effort four minutes from time and flyhalf Jean Smith’s conversions did the rest.
