Junior Springboks Asad Moos and JF van Heerden are under no illusion about the enormity of the task that awaits their team when they meet in-form England in a vital pool match of the World Rugby Under-20 Championship on Tuesday at 19:00 (SA Time) at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town.
It’s the Junior Boks’ final Pool C fixture before the playoffs on Sunday, with the SA U20s in a position where they must beat England and hope other results go their way to qualify for the semi-finals.
England currently leads Pool C with 10 points from their two wins while the Junior Boks and Argentina are tied in second place with five points each.
Speaking to media after Sunday’s team announcement in Cape Town, Moos and Van Heerden – who are both playing in their second World Rugby U20s – said the Junior Boks have a very clear picture of what they want to do on Tuesday against a very good English side, who are the reigning Six Nations U20 champions.
Van Heerden said: “England are a good side, they’ve earned it, but we don’t dwell too much on what they’ve done – our main focus is on our processes and what we can do to achieve a positive result.”
Moos echoed his teammate’s sentiment: “They have been in good form so far during the tournament, but we had a hard, honest look at ourselves, pinpointing where things went wrong against Argentina and making plans on how to fix that.”
A cold front is currently gripping parts of the Western Cape, bringing ice cold weather and rain with it, with downpours expected on Tuesday evening.
Asking whether the adverse conditions might force a rethink of strategy, Moos emphasised that he and the team have a clear understanding on how they want to play.
“We know our performance wasn’t good enough (against Argentina), but we will be sticking to our plan and our game strategy and must show improvement and be better in the execution of our plans,” said Moos.
The semi-finals and ranking playoff games are taking place on Sunday 14 July, and the final ranking games, bronze medal fixture and final will be staged on Friday 19 July.
Played over five match days in the Western Cape regions of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, the U20 Championship features the 12 best U20 nations in the world competing for the world title.