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Vannes - Baby Boks coach Dawie Theron has said that Wales executed their game plan better on the day and kept the young South Africans in their own half for most part of the match with accurate kicks in their 18-17 win over the defending champions in the IRB Junior World Championship semi-final in France.
GALLERY: Baby Boks v Wales
"We knew they would test us with a kicking game and I must say they did extremely well to frustrate us by finding favourable field positions.
"They forced us to run from deep and then defended well, which frustrated us and, which in turn, led to some errors.
"I want to praise the efforts of the boys throughout the tournament and especially in this match.
"They came back twice from behind and in the end it really hurt to lose like that, with a conversion with almost the last kick of the match.
"I think their flyhalf kept his cool quite well to succeed with that kick," said Theron.
Team captain, Ruan Steenkamp, echoed the words of his coach and praised the efforts of his team mates.
"We gave it our best effort but on the day it was not enough.
"They did their homework on us and never allowed us to create a platform for our backline.
"The boys are extremely disappointed because we are all very proud to represent our country.
The Baby Boks will now play in the third-place playoff against New Zealand, who lost 33-21 to England.
"We have one more match left to play and we will lift ourselves and play with pride.
"The defeat will hurt for a while, but we have our next match on Sunday and we will play as best as we can," said Steenkamp.
Lock Irné Herbst, who scored South Africa’s first try, said the Welsh prevented his team mates from gaining the upper hand with some fierce tackling.
"We came back strongly in the scrums and competed well in the lineouts, but they persisted with their tactic to making us turn back with long kicks into our half.
"We tried our best and on the day it was unfortunately not good enough," said Herbst.
GALLERY: Baby Boks v Wales
"We knew they would test us with a kicking game and I must say they did extremely well to frustrate us by finding favourable field positions.
"They forced us to run from deep and then defended well, which frustrated us and, which in turn, led to some errors.
"I want to praise the efforts of the boys throughout the tournament and especially in this match.
"They came back twice from behind and in the end it really hurt to lose like that, with a conversion with almost the last kick of the match.
"I think their flyhalf kept his cool quite well to succeed with that kick," said Theron.
Team captain, Ruan Steenkamp, echoed the words of his coach and praised the efforts of his team mates.
"We gave it our best effort but on the day it was not enough.
"They did their homework on us and never allowed us to create a platform for our backline.
"The boys are extremely disappointed because we are all very proud to represent our country.
The Baby Boks will now play in the third-place playoff against New Zealand, who lost 33-21 to England.
"We have one more match left to play and we will lift ourselves and play with pride.
"The defeat will hurt for a while, but we have our next match on Sunday and we will play as best as we can," said Steenkamp.
Lock Irné Herbst, who scored South Africa’s first try, said the Welsh prevented his team mates from gaining the upper hand with some fierce tackling.
"We came back strongly in the scrums and competed well in the lineouts, but they persisted with their tactic to making us turn back with long kicks into our half.
"We tried our best and on the day it was unfortunately not good enough," said Herbst.
