SA U18 escape with win
23 Jul 2010
After being outplayed throughout, SA U18 sneaked an undeserved 23-17 win over England U18 in Port Elizabeth.
The young South Africans celebrated wildly when the final whistle went. It was no doubt sparked by the 45-13 drubbing the side took in the corresponding fixture last year, but it’s a sad day when the youngsters are that ecstatic with games they should be winning and they start judging themselves on English rugby – who hardly have an outstanding schools system.
The English, who were much bigger than their hosts, will be rueing not taking all their chances to seal the result, even though they scored three tries to one.
Baby Boks flyhalf Johan Goosen kicked 15 points via five penalties, including two long range efforts from the wrong side of the field late in the match.
The English led 17-9 with 25 minutes remaining, but centre Paul Jordaan’s brilliant individual try where he beat four defenders brought his side back into the fixture, although referee Pieter de Villiers missed a blatant forward pass in the build up.
The English had most of the possession, they dominated the scrums, and for large periods outplayed their hosts as they kept ball in hand. The English surprisingly had more flair than the South Africans, who opted to kick most of the ball they had, while the hosts missed numerous first-time tackles and their basics were lacking.
The South Africans must be commended for the fightback, but the win was down to individual brilliance and not a team effort. The performance wasn’t promising and was hardly indicative of a so-called ‘high performance’ squad.
21 Comments
23 Jul 2010, 16:33 pm
Any win against England is deserved.
23 Jul 2010, 16:33 pm
Ok baby dragons
23 Jul 2010, 16:34 pm
@Troedels(Troedels)-1: Ag damn
23 Jul 2010, 16:35 pm
They played like their heroes, stupid up and unders and nonsense no attack rubbish.
They were lucky today.
23 Jul 2010, 16:46 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-4: I know I have enough of seeing that tactic used by the seniors so it wasn’t enjoyable seeing the baby boks using it as well. Plus it means I never got to see enough of Small-Smith or Barry.
Jordaan scored a great try when he came on, should’ve started. There was a definite forward pass in the move though so we were lucky.
23 Jul 2010, 17:14 pm
would be interesting to see how many of these youngsters go on to play senior rugby.
23 Jul 2010, 17:29 pm
Baby clowns
23 Jul 2010, 17:30 pm
@Troedels(Troedels)-1: Agreed.
23 Jul 2010, 17:49 pm
Who was the ref?
23 Jul 2010, 19:22 pm
Their school system has nothing to do with it. Their players are all contracted to Premiership clubs and as such are actual professionals. They finish school at 17, so all of their guys have about a year of conditioning and training that school kids don’t have.
Amateurs vs pros and the amateurs won. Shows how much guts our guys showed. Besides, they were man for man about 10kg bigger than our guys I reckon…
Well done. This looks like a good crop of youngsters.
23 Jul 2010, 21:56 pm
I was disappointed with our ball retention. We just kicked too much ball away… We have the talent, pity we didn’t allow them to flourish. Also, I believe that the Jordaan/Small-Smith combo is the 1 that should’ve started. My favourite moment of the match was the loosehead, Kitshoff going at full tilt for the try line… Loved it
23 Jul 2010, 22:45 pm
@lepel(lepel)-10:
Your Inncorrect.
English school leavers finish at 18 years of age. Their may be a few which havnt turned 18 but they would do within a few months.
If you are selected to play for SA U18 you should be training as if you are a proffesional player.
Im sure the majority of the SA U18s would end up being contracted anyway.
The school systems are pretty simular if you compare the top 20 schools of each country,.
So everything is pretty much even at this age its just down to coaching.
John
24 Jul 2010, 01:05 am
Must have been those one eyed biased refs again
24 Jul 2010, 08:07 am
@Black Magic(Black Magic)-13: They looked awful, like they had been watching the big guys.
24 Jul 2010, 10:09 am
The English, who were much bigger than their hosts…am I missing something here but traditonally we normally have some of the biggest players?
Not missing anything on the game plan though same mo same mo kick and chase kak SARU yaaawn rugby. If you play this then select the biggest players!!!
24 Jul 2010, 10:30 am
There seem to be more de Villiers in SA rugby than Jones in Welsh
24 Jul 2010, 11:54 am
@KevinRack(KevinRack)-15: Not really, having watched junior rugby often for the past number for years and the Aussie and English boys in particular have been much bigger than us these past few years.
24 Jul 2010, 19:20 pm
check the scoreboard you numb nuts!!
25 Jul 2010, 20:05 pm
Grey College 23 – England 17
You guys make us proud !!!!
26 Jul 2010, 12:57 pm
@ GRANT: What an unbelievably negative article! Sure the display could have been better, possession was kicked away too much and there were missed tackles….but to suggest that these kids shouldn’t have celebrated their victory but rather considered it a ‘sad day’ is bizaare.
As for ‘judging themselves against English rugby’: The English squad have been together for some time. This group won the U18 six-nations. England U18 won 19 in a row before meeting our boys. We won! Not great rugby but a great result none the less. It doesn’t hurt to say so.
Our boys convened on Monday 12th – many meeting one another for the first time. We won all three games (did you even see a video of the Namibia game – many of whom were U23). How about some encouragement – cohesion will develop in time – this is a brand new group. Your negativity sucks!
26 Jul 2010, 15:15 pm
Well said micky!
The england chaps had been together as a group since u15 and never lost!!!!!
And definately much bigger than our boys.
Give some credit for showing guts when you are up against it!!
Well done guys!
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