Baby Boks do some soul searching

Junior Springboks coach Dawie Theron has admitted his side were beaten by a superior Ireland side, but believes the team can bounce back and top the pool.

South Africa's 23-19 defeat on Monday has left the team with a tough battle to finish on top Pool B, which also contains England and Italy.

"You've got to give credit to the Irish, they played better on the night and deserved this victory," Theron said.

"We certainly tried our best, but it is hard when you make as many mistakes as we did. We conceded two charged down tries and that made it very difficult for us to come back and get the win we have worked so hard for.

"We have worked hard and had a plan for this match, but perhaps we did not execute it well enough on the night. We wanted a territory based game, but it did not quite work out the way we hoped."

However, Theron won't give up the fight and big victories over England and Italy could be enough to get South Africa into the semifinals.

"We now need to go out and beat Italy well and then beat England in order to give ourselves a chance to maybe top the pool," he said.

"Ironically this might prove to be a good result as we now know exactly what is needed."