The Junior Springboks have done a lot of introspection after their disappointing loss to Australia on Tuesday and the players are determined to rectify things when they play Argentina in their third and final U20 Rugby Championship encounter on Sunday morning.
The match starts at 05:30 (SA time) at the Sunshine Coast Stadium, the venue of the Junior Boks’ previous outings against Australia and New Zealand.
On Tuesday, the SA U20s suffered a 24-19 loss to hosts Australia in a match that was again played in difficult wet conditions, five days after their opening-round match ended 13-13 against New Zealand.
Left-wing Litelihle Bester and lock Thomas Dyer spoke to media on Thursday, from the team’s base in Twin Waters on the east coast of Queensland in Australia, and both players emphasised the Junior Boks’ desire to deliver a better performance and determination to finish the tournament on a positive note.
Bester, a provincial team-mate of Dyer at the Hollywoodbets Sharks, has impressed with his finishing abilities out wide, scoring twice against the Aussies.
“We want to show that we’ve learnt from our mistakes and play the type of rugby that we know we can deliver,” said Bester, one of five players in the current squad who played in last year’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town.
“Up to now, it’s been both disappointing and frustrating because we managed to get ourselves into good field positions in both games, but poor execution and unforced errors led to many spoilt opportunities.
“We showed only glimpses of our potential and we are determined, looking forward, to put into practice what we’ve learnt and deliver a much better performance.”
Dyer, who was the starting lock against NZ but did not feature against Australia because of several rotational changes, added: “We all realised that we’ve not played to our potential so far on this tour, and while we’re not underestimating Argentina, we now have a last opportunity to play to our full potential.”
Following their squad recovery and match review on Wednesday, the Junior Boks returned to the field training on Thursday morning. The team for Sunday’s final fixture against Argentina will be named on Friday and the game will be broadcast live on SuperSport.