The Junior Springboks were welcomed back to South Africa on Monday by cheering fans and South African Rugby Union president Mark Alexander after winning the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy on Saturday.
Coach Kevin Foote's South African U-20s ended a 13-year wait to reclaim the global U-20 crown with a 23-15 victory over the Junior All Blacks in the final in Rovigo, Italy.
“This is a very proud day for rugby in South Africa and I would like to congratulate Kevin and the team on an outstanding performance in the tournament,” Alexander said.
“The group have been welded into a formidable unit over the course of this year and many of them have the potential to go on to higher honours, I am sure.
“Their victory is a tribute to all the hard work done at high-school level by educators and coaches and at our provincial unions from whom these players are drawn.
“Appointing a head coach in Kevin, who has franchise experience, was also an important part of the progress this group have shown and I would like to commend him, his back-room team and the high-performance department at SA Rugby for what they have achieved in such a short space of time.”
The Junior Boks last won the title in 2012 with a home victory over the same opponents in Cape Town but had had a long wait for a repeat success, having not appeared in another final since 2014.
This time the team showed great composure in cruising to the final with commanding victories over Australia (73-12), England (32-22) and Scotland (73-14) in the pool stages, and Argentina (48-24) in the semifinals.
They led in the final from the third minute and tries by Xola Nyali and Gilermo Mentoe and 13 points from the boot of Vusi Moyo secured a famous victory.
Moyo finished the tournament as the top points’ scorer with 63, while scrumhalf Haashim Pead scored six tries, placing him second for the most five-pointers behind Georgia’s Mikheili Shioshvili (seven).
SA Rugby media
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