The Junior Springboks were welcomed back to SA on Monday by cheering fans and SA Rugby Union president Mark Alexander after winning the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy on Saturday.
Coach Kevin Foote’s team ended a 13-year wait to reclaim the global U-20 crown with a 23-15 victory over the Junior All Blacks in the final in Rovigo, Italy.
“This is a very proud day for rugby in SA and I would like to congratulate Kevin and the team on an outstanding performance in the tournament,” said Alexander.
“The group have been welded into a formidable unit over the course of this year and many of them have the potential to go on to higher honours, I am sure.
“Their victory is a tribute to all the hard work done at high-school level by educators and coaches and at our provincial unions from whom these players are drawn.
“Appointing a head coach in Kevin, who has franchise experience, was also an important part of the progress this group have shown and I would like to commend him, his back-room team and the high-performance department at SA Rugby for what they have achieved in such a short space of time.”
The Junior Boks last won the title in 2012 with a home victory over the same opponents in Cape Town but had a long wait for a repeat success, having not appeared in another final since 2014.
This time the team showed great composure in cruising to the final with commanding victories over Australia (73-12), England (32-22) and Scotland (73-14) in the pool stages, and Argentina (48-24) in the semifinals.
They led in the final from the third minute and tries by Xola Nyali and Gilermo Mentoe and 13 points from the boot of Vusi Moyo secured a famous victory.
Moyo finished the tournament as the top points scorer with 63, while scrumhalf Haashim Pead scored six tries, placing him second for the most five-pointers behind Georgia’s Mikheili Shioshvili (seven).
SA Rugby media
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