The South African U18 team played their first match of the U18 International Series and scored five tries to beat Ireland 38-26 despite Ireland dominating for most of the match.
Ireland started like a house on fire and scored a try by hooker Conor Magee from the back of a five-meter lineout-maul to lead 05-00 after just two minutes of play in the first half.
SA U18 flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed's grubber was controlled by Markus Miller, who ran fifty meters to score his try to open the account for the SA U18. Five minutes Ahmed again created a try with his individual brilliance, curring the defence of Ireland in two to offload to Zekethelo Siyaya to score next to the poles, extending the SA U18 lead to 14-05 after fifteen minutes of play.
Five minutes later centre Jack Deegan crashed over for Ireland's second try to reduce SA U18 lead to just two points. However, five minutes later Zekethelo Siyaya scored his second try, thanks to a great grubber by Markus Muller.
Despite dominating territory and possession during the final fifteen minutes of the match Ireland failed to score despite several opportunities on SA U18's tryline. SA U18 led 21-12 at the halftime break.
Ireland continued their dominance and scored their third try, via hooker Conor Magee from the back of a lineout-maul. SA U18, at that stage, had only thirteen boys on the field following a yellow card on both sides of the halftime break.
However, in a brilliant response, SA U18 scored from the back of a lineout maul when captain Sethu Mnebelele broke away from the maul at the right time to restore the SA U18 lead of nine points (28-19).
The SA U18s started to dominate with their attacking play when Pieter van der Merwe put Cheswill Jooste in space to stroll over for the SA U18s' fifth try to lead 35-19 and twenty-five minutes to play. Shortly thereafter, Vusi Moyo added a converted penalty for the SA U18s.
Ireland's dominance comes scrum time had them setting up camp in the SA U18s red zone which eventually led to Dylan McNeice bulldozing his way over the tryline for Ireland's fourth try with twelve minutes still to play.
As with the first half Ireland dominated the final twenty-odd minutes, however, once again they could not add points to the scoreboard with South Africa U18 securing a deserved 38-26 win.
Earlier England beat Georgia 27-20 after trailing 10-20 at the halftime break.
The final round of matches in the U18 International Series will be played on 20 August at Paarl Boishaai.
Fixtures:
13h30 South Africa vs England
15h30 Ireland vs Georgia
Scorers:
South Africa U18: Tries: Markus Muller, Zekethelo Siyaya (2), Sethu Mnebelele, Cheswill Jooste. Conversions: Yaqeen Ahmed (3), Akha Boqwana (2). Penalty: Vusi Moyo.
Ireland U18: Tries: Conor Magee (2), Jack Deegan, Dylan McNeice. Conversions: Tom Wood, Conor O’Shaughnessy (2).
Teams:
South Africa U18: 1 Siba Booi, 2 Sethu Mnebelele (c), 3 Ulrich van der Merwe, 4 JD Hattingh, 5 Riley Norton, 6 Alutha Wesi, 7 Josh Mackenzie, 8 Reuben Kruger, 9 Elgernon Meyer, 10 Yaqeen Ahmed, 11 Zekethelo Siyaya, 12 Pieter van der Merwe, 13 Markus Muller, 14 Kuthadzo Rashivhaga, 15 Akha Boqwana. Replacements: 16 Mahle Sithole, 17 Phiwayinkosi Khubeka, 18 Aidan Botha, 19 AJ Meyer, 20 Josh Neil, 21 Adeeb Boraine, 22 Simphiwe Moyo, 23 Janco Purchase, 24 Torren February, 25 Ethan Adams, 26 Cheswill Jooste.
Ireland U18: 1 Max Doyle, 2 Conor Magee, 3 Blake McClean, 4 Dylan McNeice, 5 Donnacha McGuire, 6 Diarmaid O’Connell, 7 Billy Hayes, 8 Charlie Meagher, 9 James O’Dwyer, 10 Tom Wood, 11 Brian O’Flaherty, 12 Sean Walsh, 13 Jack Deegan, 14 Noah Byrne, 15 Charlie Molony. Replacements: 16 Luke McLaughlin, 17 Jamie Conway, 18 Sami Bishti, 19 Joe Finn, 20 Thomas Dougan, 21 Christopher Barrett, 22 Conor O’Shaughnessy, 23 Johnny O’Sullivan, 24 James O’Leary, 25 Michael Walsh, 26 Josh Gibson.
