A nightmare start to the Junior Rugby World Championships could see the Baby Boks fail to progress out of the group stage at their home tournament, after being comprehensively outplayed by their Irish counterparts in Stellenbosch yesterday.
Coach Dawie Theron put the defeat down to “small errors” on the part of his team, while captain Wiaan Liebenberg blamed the referee “I think there were several calls that didn’t go our way. I was frustrated with that, especially with their bodies lying all over the ball.”
Neither coach nor captain took responsibility for their team being dominated at the breakdown, destroyed in the set-pieces and simply being outplayed and out-thought in all facets of the game. The game plan appeared to be the standard bash it up and kick possession away that has become the staple of South African coaches. The Baby Boks play England next but face an almost impossible task to progress in the tournament.
All the results from day one:
Monday June 04 2012
South Africa 19 – 23 Ireland
France 15 – 18 Argentina
New Zealand 63 – 0 Samoa
England 64 – 5 Italy
Wales 44 – 18 Fiji
Australia 67 – 12 Scotland