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Cape Town - The Junior Springboks are leaving no stone unturned in their preparations for the next World Rugby Under-20 Championship match against Samoa in Parma in Italy on Saturday.
The clash at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi Stadium starts at 18:30 (SA time) and is the second Pool B outing for South Africa following their 33-5 win over Italy on Tuesday.
South Africa and Samoa met at the same stage last year in New Zealand, with the Baby Boks winning 21-8 after a very physical match played in driving rain in Pukehoke.
On Tuesday Samoa suffered a 34-22 loss to Australia on match day one but Theron expects a strong, fiery performance from Samoa against his team.
The SA U20 coach was not happy with many aspects of the performance against Italy, but believes his team will play better in their second match.
"Italy had a good kicking game and they played with a lot of determination in front of their supporters, which we expected," said Theron.
"Samoa will bring a different challenge and we will have to be patient and more clinical at the breakdown."
Theron emphasised the importance of good defence ahead of Saturday, with only the three pool winners and the best second placed team moving through to the semi-finals.
"We have a very competitive pool and good defence is therefore vital," said the coach.
"We made too many handling mistakes against Italy and that is something we cannot afford again because Samoa have the ability to hurt you from turnovers."
The squad was due to finish their match preparations with the Captain’s Run in Parma on Friday evening and the match-23 to play against Samoa would also be confirmed on Friday.
