Baby Boks and Los Pumitas in draw
The South African Under-20 team on Saturday claimed a 1-0 series win over their Argentina counterparts after the two sides played to a 20-20 draw in their second encounter at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.
The hosts recorded a comfortable 39-7 win over their Argentinean opponents in Vredenburg on Wednesday.
However the Baby Boks, which included 10 changes and one positional switch, struggled to build much momentum in this match due to the many handling mistakes made at crucial periods in the game which resulted in them not converting numerous scoring opportunities into points.
The SA Under-20 team where the first team to score when flyhalf Francois du Toit kicked a penalty in the opening minutes of the match after the visitors were penalised for offside play.
The Argentineans then levelled the score when flyhalf Ignacio Rodríguez Muedra added a penalty when the hosts were penalised at a ruck. The visitors then took a seven point lead when centre Frederico Haustein scored an intercept try minutes before the break (10-3).
After the restart, it was Rodríguez Muedra who kicked a second penalty to take the score to 13-3 before Manuel Montero scored a try in the corner to stretch Los Pumitas’ lead to 20-3.
Baby Boks centre Francois Venter then scored a brilliant try, which was converted by Gary van Aswegen to cut the deficit to 20-10.
The hosts lifted their intensity and applied pressure on the Argentinean Under-20 team’s defence.
Soon it was SA Under-20 captain CJ Stander who crashed over the try line to score the hosts’ second try of the match. Gary van Aswegen kicked his second conversion before adding his first penalty in the 75th minute of the match to level the scores at 20-20.
“I think a draw was a fair result because we didn’t take our opportunities in the match,” said Stander.
“We were not patient and allowed ourselves to be sucked into the tactics of the Argentineans. But we still have a few more months to get things right before the IRB World Championship and I believe we have a string enough team to do well at the Championships.
“There’s some hard lessons to be learnt after this draw, and I know the team will pick themselves up after this result.”
Scorers:
SA Under-20:
Tries: Venter, Stander
Cons: Van Aswegen 2
Pens: Du Toit, Van Aswegen
Argentina Under-20:
Tries: Haustein, Montero
Cons: Muedra 2
Pens: Muedra 2
Teams:
SA U20: 15 Nico Scheepers, 14 Garth April, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Divan Ferguson, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Francois du Toit, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Kenny Okafor, 6 Rinus Riekert, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Marcell van der Merwe, 2 Monde Hadebe, 1 Brummer Badenhorst.
Replacements – from: Shaun Melton, Wessel du Randt, Ruan Dreyer, Jono Ross, Mlungisi Bali, Frederick Muller, Gary van Aswegen, Clayton Blommetjies, Jaco Taute.
Argentina U20: 15 Ramiro Moyano, 14 Dan Isaak, 13 Brian Ormson, 12 Federico Haustein, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Ignacio Rodríguez Muedra, 9 Santiago Méndez, 8 Alan Kessen (captain), 7 Tomás De la Vega, 6 Gonzalo Vila, 5 Martín Chiappesoni, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Esteban Viale, 2 Emiliano Coria, 1 Alexis Barone.
Replacements – from: Tomás Baravalle, Tomás Kelly Grinner, Eric Rinemberg, Rodrigo Ferro, Javier Linares, Bautista Güemes, Valentín Cruz, Juan Pablo Álvarez, Facundo Panceyra Garrido, Pedro Mercerat, Javier Ortega Desio.
Referee: Ben Crouse (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Lusanda Jam (South Africa), Roslyn Fortuin (South Africa)
