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Cape Town - The Junior Springboks have continued their preparations for the IRB Junior World Championship with a hard-fought 60-14 victory over Argentina Under-20 at Stellenbosch on Tuesday.
Last week, the South Africa Under-20 side won the first of three encounters 78-31 in Saldanha Bay. The third and final clash between the two sides takes place on Saturday at 16:00 at the City Park Stadium in Crawford, Cape Town.
The Junior Boks piled on 38 points in the second half after leading 22-0 at half-time thanks to tries from captain and fullback, Jesse Kriel, Malcolm Marx, Cyle Brink and Dan Kriel.
In the second half, the South Africans added six more tries through Neil Maritz (2), Corniel Els (2), Jean-Luc du Preez and Wilco Louw.
Dawie Theron, the Junior Boks' coach, made eleven changes from the side that played in Saldanha.
The visitors also played with much more focus and intensity and the home team had to work hard for each point.
South Africa Under-20 lifted the tempo in the latter part of the second half, when Theron made several changes from the bench.
The extra momentum helped the team to finally pull away from Argentina, who threatened with a courageous comeback midway through the second half.
Echardt Rodrigo and Schulz German scored a try each for the visitors to reduce the deficit at one stage to 34-14.
Afterwards, Theron said although he was happy with the second consecutive win, he was however less impressed with the squad's overall performance.
"We knew they would be much more stronger in the second match, but we made it difficult for ourselves out there.
"We did not create enough quick ball to release our strong backline, so that is something we will have to work on in the next few days before our last match," explained Theron.
