THE IRELAND U20s are one game away from a place in the World Championship final, with Richie Murphy’s side taking on host nation South Africa in the semi-finals on Sunday [KO 3.30pm, Virgin Media 2].
The game will present an interesting challenge for an Ireland team who booked their place in the last four with an impressive defeat of Fiji on an emotional day in Stellenbosch earlier this week.
Here, we take a look at what Ireland can expect when they face the Junior Springboks at the Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town.
Route to the semi-finals:
Yet to set the tournament alight, the hosts opened their campaign with a laboured 33-23 defeat of Georgia, before an unexpected 34-26 loss to Italy. South Africa then beat Argentina in their final pool game, coming back from 16-7 down at half-time to win 24-16, a result which saw them secure their place as group winners, pipping Georgia on the head-to-head.
Having scraped into the last four, the Springboks know they’ll need to lift things to get past an Ireland side who have impressed the local media in South Africa.
Previous meetings:
Ireland head coach Richie Murphy has often stressed that one of the challenges of U20s rugby is how difficult it can be to obtain footage on the opposition in order to do proper analysis. However, both teams will at this stage have a decent idea of what to expect from each other having come through three pool games over the last two weeks.
The two teams also played each other in the not-so-distant past, meeting during the U20 Six Nations Summer Series last year for the first fixture between the sides since 2018.
On that occasion, South Africa twice built up a 23-point lead before an injury-hit Ireland side clawed back the deficit, scoring all of their three tries in the second half of a 24-33 defeat in Verona. The Boks then went on to win the tournament outright, but that match remains the last time the Ireland U20s were beaten in a competitive fixture.
Six players from that Springboks squad are involved again at this championship – prop Corne Lavagna, centre Katlego Letebele, scrum-halves Neil le Roux and Imad Khan and flankers Paul de Villiers and Gcinokuhle Mdletshe – while Sam Prendergast, George Hadden, Conor O’Tighearnaigh, Diarmuid Mangan, James McNabney and Charlie Irvine all featured for Ireland.
Players to watch:
Jurenzo Julius is a powerful, athletic winger capable of running from deep and using his strength to break tackles, scoring tries in the games against Georgia and Italy.
Katlego Letebele, the vice-captain, also has two tries to his name at this World Championship. Letebele and captain Paul de Villiers, who both featured against Ireland in the Summer Series last year, are the key leaders for this Springboks side.
Sharks inside centre Ethan Hooker is also highly-rated, making his URC debut with a short cameo against Connacht back in January, while Cornè Beets was the outstanding performer against Argentina – a difficult man to stop from close range, the number eight crossed twice in the second half as the Boks came from behind to book their place in the last four.
Prop Dian Heunis came in for his first start in the Argentina game, and cites Ireland tighthead Tadhg Furlong as his sporting role model, while out-half Jean Smith is the son of Glasgow coach, Franco.
Strengths/weaknesses:
South Africa will look to test Murphy’s side in the close contacts, with all five tries in last year’s meeting with Ireland coming from the forwards, but they have dangerous attacking talent and big, powerful runners in the backline too – Letebele scored a delightful chip-and-collect in the win over Georgia, and in the same game, Julius produced a wonderful acrobatic finish in the corner.
Yet they’ve struggled for cohesion at times, and of the four semi-finalists, they’re the lowest scoring side by a distance.
The set-piece has been a concern for the Junior Springboks, with Georgia blitzing the Boks maul for their opening try, Italy bagging three tries from the same source in round two and their scrum creaking under pressure.
Discipline is another issue – conceding nine penalties in the first half against Argentina – while their defence can be guilty of shooting up, something Georgia managed to take advantage of in the opening round.
Home advantage:
The Junior Springboks’ sole World Championship title came back in 2012, when the tournament was held in South Africa for the first time. With the competition returning to the Rainbow Nation for the first time since, the Boks are looking to repeat the heroics of that 2012 side, which included future World Cup winners Raymond Rhule, Handre Pollard, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Steven Kitshoff and La Rochelle’s two-time Champions Cup winner, Dillyn Leyds.
Head coach:
Bafana Nhleko joined the Junior Springboks as an assistant coach in 2018 before stepping up to the head coach role in 2021, leading the team to the U20 Six Nations Summer Series title last year.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s semi-final, Nhleko said he’s been impressed by Ireland’s form and expects Murphy’s side to present a different type of challenge to that they experienced across their three pool games.
“We played against Ireland in last year’s Summer Series and we know what we are up against, as they have a number of those players back at this tournament,” Nhleko said.
“They have really done well in winning the U20 Six Nations and showed some excellent form so far in this competition. They also suffered some adversity in the last couple of days and that will give them a deeper sense of purpose going into each game.
“They are a well-coached side, and their skill set will challenge us in different ways to what our pool opponents had.”
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