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Cape Town - SA U-20 coach Dawie Theron remains positive about their chances of making the Junior World Championship playoffs despite losing to Ireland.
The South Africans suffered a disappointing 23-19 defeat against Ireland in their opening match at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Monday night.
The Irish had a commanding 13-3 lead at the break and as hard as the Junior Springboks tried to come back, they could not overcome a sterling Irish effort.
“You’ve got to give credit to the Irish, they played better on the night and deserved this victory,” Junior Springboks coach Dawie Theron said after the match.
“We certainly tried our best, but it is hard when you make as many mistakes as we did. We conceded two charged down tries and that made it very difficult for us to come back and get the win we have worked so hard for.”
However, Theron was still positive about their chances of making the playoffs.
“We now need to go out and beat Italy well and then beat England in order to give ourselves a chance to maybe top the pool. Ironically this might prove to be a good result as we now know exactly what is needed.”
Theron was happy that his team came off the field without serious injury considering the fact that he had to replace three players shortly before the start of the tournament.
“We have worked hard and had a plan for this match, but perhaps we did not execute it well enough on the night. We wanted a territory based game, but it did not quite work out the way we hoped.”
The South Africans suffered a disappointing 23-19 defeat against Ireland in their opening match at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Monday night.
The Irish had a commanding 13-3 lead at the break and as hard as the Junior Springboks tried to come back, they could not overcome a sterling Irish effort.
“You’ve got to give credit to the Irish, they played better on the night and deserved this victory,” Junior Springboks coach Dawie Theron said after the match.
“We certainly tried our best, but it is hard when you make as many mistakes as we did. We conceded two charged down tries and that made it very difficult for us to come back and get the win we have worked so hard for.”
However, Theron was still positive about their chances of making the playoffs.
“We now need to go out and beat Italy well and then beat England in order to give ourselves a chance to maybe top the pool. Ironically this might prove to be a good result as we now know exactly what is needed.”
Theron was happy that his team came off the field without serious injury considering the fact that he had to replace three players shortly before the start of the tournament.
“We have worked hard and had a plan for this match, but perhaps we did not execute it well enough on the night. We wanted a territory based game, but it did not quite work out the way we hoped.”
