When Baby Boks ruled the world
SPOTLIGHT: With the World Rugby Under-20 championship just over a fortnight away, @rugby365com takes a look at when South Africa ruled the roost at age-group level.
The 2025 version, the Under-20 championship, will get underway on June 29 and run till July 19 in four cities across the Lombardia and Veneto regions of Italy.
It will be the third time that Italy has hosted the prestigious tournament featuring the 12 best U20 teams in the world.
In previous adaptions it was Under-21 and Under-19 tournaments, before merging to U20 in 2008.
The first time the Baby Boks won the IRB U21 Championship (then still called the International Rugby Board) was in 1999 in Buenos Aires, beating New Zealand 27–25 in the Final.
The team was coached by the late Eric Sauls, who set the trend for the age-group game in the Republic with a world crown.
The team was captained by John Smit, who would go on to also lift the Webb Ellis Cup (senior World Cup) as captain of the Boks in 2007.
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In 2002 SA beat Australia 24–21 in the Final at Ellispark, with Jake White as coach and Clyde Rathbone as captain.
Rathbone later immigrated and played for Australia.
In 2003 SA U19 beat their New Zealand counterparts 22–18 in the FIRA championship in Paris France.
The team was coached by Eugene Eloff and captained by Paul Delport, who later became a BlitzBok star and coach.
In 2005 the Loffie Eloff’s Baby Boks lifted the IRB U19 World Cup again in Durban, beating New Zealand 20– 5 in the Final.
That team was captained by Alistair Hargreaves.
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In the same year South Africa won and age-group double, the U21 team beating Australia 24–20 in Mendoza, Argentina, with Pieter de Villiers as coach and Chiliboy Ralepelle as captain.
The junior game in the Republic then went through a slump, with no international silverware.
That was until 2012, when the Baby Boks beat New Zealand 41–34 in the U20 Final in Cape Town.
The team was coached by Dawie Theron and captained by Ruan Steenkamp.
It included players like Handre Pollard, Steven Kitshoff, Pieter-Steph du Toit (all three later double senior World Cup winners), Williams Small-Smith, Jan Serfontein and Paul Willemse (later to become a French stalwart).
After 2012 it pretty much was a downhill for the junior game in South Africa.
It begs the question: ‘What went wrong? Is it coaching? Are the players not good enough? Is it rugby politics?’
With such a conveyer belt of talent, one of the best, if not the best, schools systems in the world, there can be no excuse.
Keep in mind that the coaches are now full-time South African Rugby Union employees and have much more time to prepare the team.
They even play in warm-up matched. In recent years there is also the addition of a Rugby Championship in preparation for the junior World Cup.
With the disappointing outcome of the U20 Rugby Championship in Port Elizabeth April this year, where the Baby Boks finished a disappointing third, the pressure is on Kevin Foote and this team to perform and get results at the World Cup in Italy.
They are in Pool A with strong teams like England, Australia and Scotland.
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