Key score: Jan Serfontein
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South Africa became IRB Junior World Championship winners on Friday as they ended New Zealand's four-year reign with a 22-16 win at Newlands.
Victory in front of over 33,000 supporters in Cape Town capped an impressive turnaround for the Baby Boks, who had lost their opening game.
For New Zealand the defeat was one they could have few arguments about as they failed to match the physicality at both the scrum and breakdown.
The weather held off despite the cloud coming and going above the ground to cap a tournament that has been marred by rain and muddy pitches.
But the call to move games from Danie Craven Stadium to the Stormers' home and Cape Town Stadium paid off, with a record crowd watching.
It was an even and cagey opening to the match and it wasn't until New Zealand full-back Martin McKenzie broke out from his own half that the game sparked into life. Nothing came of the attack though as Milford Keresoma fumbled, with the ensuing minutes seeing Handre Pollard and Isaia West kick goals.
South Africa were the side on top though as captain Wian Liebenberg went close to scoring on the left but was deemed to have been held up. Pollard grabbed the consolation from an earlier penalty offence as the Baby Boks edged into a three-point advantage on 20 minutes.
The contest then slipped into finals rugby as both looked for position before McKenzie carved something out of nothing, beating three players on halfway and then handing to hooker Nathan Harris who swiftly put Keresoma in the clear from 35 out. There was no catching the Aucklander. West landed the touchline conversion to propel the Baby Blacks into a 10-6 lead as the clock edged to within two minutes of the end of a good first-half.
Pollard did cut the gap to just a single point with a penalty from in front before the break.
New Zealand almost hit back shortly after the restart when a fumble in his own in-goal area from Tshotsho Mbovane caused the Baby Boks a lot of bother. However, the hosts survived and in fact were the ones who recorded five points when Fabian Booysen sniped over.
Pollard's missed subsequent extras meant four points was the home lead but when West cut the lead down to one - proceeding a red card apiece for Baby Bok Paul Willemse and Baby Black Ofa Tu'ungafasi for punches thrown - it looked like more scores were on the horizon due it being fourteen against fourteen players for the final quarter of the game.
18-year-old Pollard stepped up first with a sweetly struck drop-goal from 45 metres and when Jan Serfontein powered over on the right, making it 22-13, it seemed New Zealand were about to finally surrender their Junior World Championship crown after a long spell.
So it proved as West's penalty was the only score to make it 22-16, which was the ending.
In the other fixtures taking place on the final day, Fiji avoided finishing last by overcoming Italy 19-17, Scotland ended up in ninth spot thanks to their 62-28 hammering of Samoa, England sneaked past Australia 17-13 at the University of the Western Cape while Ireland and Wales defeated France and Argentina to finish in fifth and third place respectively.
Results:
11th Place Play-Off
Italy 17-19 Fiji
9th Place Play-Off
Scotland 62-28 Samoa
7th Place Play-Off
England 17-13 Australia
5th Place Play-Off
Ireland 18-7 France
3rd Place Play-Off
Argentina 17-25 Wales
Final
South Africa 22-16 New Zealand
By Adam Kyriacou at Newlands
Comments
meneer says...
What an awesome game, a very talented kiwi team beaten (in all context) up front by a very physical & driven Bok team. Two things stand out for me,
1. The Heyneke Meyer powerful upfront Bok rugby is deep rooted in SA rugby, something we do well at all levels and I think we should give the national coach more support to harness this talent.
2. Kiwi rugby has no idea where the off side line is at all levels, especially when defending their own try line.
The red card was incident is a result of absolute frustration, the kiwi prop (no 1) might have looked tough doing the haka - but that was about it. He was smashed in every department, can't see him going any further - at best he'll be offered a contract to play premiership rugby maybe or even worse an England jersey.
Posted 10:21 23rd June 2012
kiwikev says...
Congrats to the Baby Boks! After a scare from Ireland, they were the class of the tournament....
Posted 09:50 23rd June 2012
Wallaroo says...
Well done baby Boks and baby AB's on a very entertaining and hard fought final, both teams played rugby which was at the same level as senior international. Both teams were head and shoulders above the rest and therefore deserved final spots.
As a Wallabies supporter it is a great concern to see the baby Wallabies flounder like they did, hopefully this is not indicative of our future.
@dingbat - pot - kettle - black, in response to your question, no.
@jonsey2 you really are a bitter and twisted little man.
All please note that jonesy2 is NOT an Aussie he is a Kiwi, surprisingly they seem too weak to tell him where to go. On the other hand what does impress me is the number of Saffas that put their "jonesy2" type idiots in their place.
Posted 08:43 23rd June 2012
new_j4a says...
Well done both teams. And thanks to all those gracious and sportsmanlike posters on here, the vast majority of kiwi supporters......apologies to you all for dingbat and foxrot's comments. Every country has a few (And what is all this cr@p about McCaw? I have watched a couple of his post match talks and see nothing wrong. He acknowledges that the opposition were tough to beat--if they were--and we don't have to endure any artificial fawning that one often sees in the modern feelgood era where "everyone is a winner.")
Posted 08:00 23rd June 2012
Ruggafan says...
Very exciting game. Well done Boks. Why can't their fans be more like the NZ captain? Well manered, humble and gracious. All through these comments it nothing but how lucky the Boks are, have only won once etc, etc. What would it be like if in future Sa and NZ never play rugby against each other again? If you ask the acctual All Black players ,i bet the Boks are there Favourite opposition. Why can't everyone just enjoy the game instead of making excusses and making jibes at each other.
Posted 07:12 23rd June 2012
rugbylover says...
@Dingbat32
No.
Posted 07:10 23rd June 2012
hayj05 says...
@ ABlack - Don't be too hard on the boys. South Africa is a very tough place to win & they did very well to come within 6 points of the title after the disappointment against Wales in the group stage.
5 finals in a row & 4 titles is amazing from our juniors. Before the junior world champs started & there was the u-19 & u-21 world champs it was pretty much a lottery between New Zealand, Australia, South Africa & I think France & Ireland also won a title.
The consistancy that our juniors have showed over the last 5 years is amazing considering it's basically a new team every year & although they didn't bring the cup home this time, I don't think anyone can argue that NZ Rugby is in a very strong position heading into the foreseeable future.
Posted 06:01 23rd June 2012
jonesy2 says...
shame that it is tainted by NZ being robbed clean. first try not grounded and second try the second last pass was a good metre and a half forward.
Posted 05:33 23rd June 2012
bigb6969 says...
Dingbat32 says...seems pretty smug after winning one title, one title in 5 years in which this is the first time South Africa made a final, where as NZ made everyone.
Several factors where involved, home advantage to South Africa, NZ did not select available Super rugby (and 7s) players like South Africa did, so we were fighting with one hand behind our back.
The rain made the ball very slippery and slowed the game down to the Bok pace.
Also the referee was clearly biased for the home team, saved south africa with some bogus calls when they were under pressure.
NZ tactics, we kicked too much, probably in response to the conditions
Still we only lost by 6 points. Good things is we are next year.
Incidentally this is the first time NZ have not been the highest points scorers in the 5 years, Wales scored more. NZ where still the highest try scorers for the tournement
Posted 05:23 23rd June 2012
badza says...
Goed gedoen Baby Bokke, moet Jan Serfontein kom na die Noord Transvaal.
Posted 05:15 23rd June 2012
KiwiLad says...
Congrats to SA rugby, firstly on a great tournament, 2ndly on winning it!
Posted 03:06 23rd June 2012
Trader2 says...
Great game and congrats to the Baby Bokkies and to the great crowd that turned up. Well sone also to the Blacks it is a big ask year after year to continue winning this competition and they did look a little underdone up front. The future looks pretty bright for both teams with a few to be a few involved in 2015. For Trinats if he is viewing (probably not) Baby Wanna's finish 8th, not a good look, must be something wrong in the coaching/selection setup surely, this is a bad result for Oz and will do nothing to fill the lack of depth within the Oz game.
Oh and Dingbat32 to look smug you have to have something to be smug about, you know a bit like you in 2007, so don't get too carried away at this stage.
Posted 03:03 23rd June 2012
powerplay says...
Congrats to SA young guys!!! Hard luck AB young guys!!!
Posted 02:30 23rd June 2012
sandal says...
@Dingbat32
That's right, one swallow in one spring makes for eternal summer.
You say: ""there were some smug kiwis on this site after RWC saying how NZ were champions at every level.""
Which part of what they were saying wasn't true?
Congratulations to the Baby Boks, and Wales. That is a monkey off everyone's back at that level.
Posted 02:29 23rd June 2012
tha_mai says...
Dingbat32 says...is this the start of a Boks dominant phase?
absolutely; who could argue with smug logic like that? win one game in five years, at home ground, home crowd, by a huge six-point margin.
Clearly utter and complete world domination awaits!
My smug post, 18 June: tha_mai says...I'd pick SA to win the final, 10pts, games I've seen they are simply a better team.
smug enuff for ya?
Posted 02:07 23rd June 2012
ABlack says...
The ref missed 2 knockons in the lead up to the first SA try, and he was a plonker for sending 2 players off as it effectively ruined the game.
The game changing moment and the defining moment that swubng the momentum SA way for me was when the SA scrum shoved the Kiwis off the ball on the SA goaline and then went up field thru poor Kiwi ruck defence. Then scored just after that. The NZers seemed very poor at looking after the ball and constantly thru the tournament gave away stupid penalties at key times( even when on attack).
The forward pack wasnt the best one NZ has had at under 20 level. With Sam Cane , Gafa Sua, Mike Fatialofa all missing from this team I think they were always going to be under the pump to win this Under 20 tourney. The SA team had 5 S15 players and several Vodacom cup players and that experience seemed to make a big difference in the final especially.
Next year NZ will have 4 players who are in the NZ sevens squad so should have more experience at higher levels of Rugby.NZ needs to put most of the squad into ITM cup teams for the experience at an higher level.
NZRFU needs to look at their Under 20 program as far as preparing the team for the Under 20 champs. They seemed to be under done and under prepared compared to SA, England, Argentina, Wales, Ireland, France who have 6 nations series or a test serires behind them before the Under 20 tournament, so more game time as a team together. That showed through at key times and key games during this Under 20's WC.
Posted 01:51 23rd June 2012
ruckingkiwi says...
Wish I'd seen the game, what an awesome crowd, must have been a buzz for the players. Credit to the young Boks, sounds like they played a great style and deserved the win. Well played NZ, we cannot win them all but a great effort without any of last years team and no S15 players. England and Australia completely off the pace which is very surprising and must be of some concern., especially Australia who have (from memory) only 1 final appearance in the last 4-5 years and year on year seem to be getting worse.
Posted 00:21 23rd June 2012
safehands says...
Keep dreaming Dingbat.....how many 'stars' from the previous JWC's are now world beaters? Not many you may find...even their own coach said this was the weakest baby black team ever and your supposed next generation of world beaters could only just beat them, at home, in front of 33000 people.....
FoxRock....your final little swipe at McCaw just shows how pathetic you really are...
As for the game, well done to the baby boks. Deserved the win. Now if only some of your fans could show the same class....doubt it though...
Posted 00:09 23rd June 2012
tokyojb says...
What was it one NZ supporter said at the start of the tournament... oh yes, that's right - oops
Jmanngod says...
It should be a great battle for second place! I wonder by how many points NZ will win this year's final?
Posted 22:23 02nd June 2012
Posted 00:08 23rd June 2012
BokRocker says...
Lets not jinx it for the Boks Dingbats but what a wonderfull thought nontheless.
Posted 00:02 23rd June 2012