Adter beating the Argentinians by wide margins int eh first two games in the series - the result in the third game was far from convincing.
Lets look at the team again:-
15 - Jessie Kriel (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
14 - Sergeal Petersen (EP Kings)
13 - Dan Kriel (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
12 - Andre Esterhuizen (Cell C Sharks)
11 - Duhan van der Merwe (SARU contracted)
10 - Jean-Luc du Plessis (Cell C Sharks)
9 - JP Smith (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
8 - Aidon Davis (EP Kings)
7 - Jean-Luc du Preez (Cell C Sharks)
6 - Victor Sekekete (Golden Lions)
5 - Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
4 - Abongile Nontonkwane (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
3 - Wilco Louw (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
2 - Corniel Els (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
1 - Pierre Schoeman (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
The following is the match report from the official squadL0
"South Africa Under-20 completed a 3-0 series win over Argentina after clinching a 41-36 victory in their final encounter on Saturday afternoon at City Park.
The Junior Springboks led 24-5 at halftime. The three matches were part of the two sides’ preparations for the 2014 Junior World Championship, to be staged during June in Auckland, New Zealand.
The South Africans registered victories of 78-31 and 60-14 in the previous two encounters.
Cool conditions and a stiff breeze greeted the two teams at City Park today, and the home team quickly got into their stride in the first half. After leading 24-5 at the break, the home side allowed the visitors back into the game when they scored several good tries.
South Africa scored four tries in the first half while Argentina responded with a good effort. Prop Pierre Schoeman was first over the try line and he was followed by centre Andre Esterhuizen, scrumhalf JP Smith and outside centre Dan Kriel.
Jean-Luc du Plessis succeeded with two conversions to make the halftime score 24-5 after the visitors’ Boffelli Emiliano (centre) managed to break through the home defence.
It was the visitors who scored first in the second half through flanker Lezana Tomas to reduce the deficit to 24-10. This try seemed to kick the Los Pumitas into gear, and left wing Echardt Rodrigo then sliced through the SA U20 defence to score (24-17).
Rodrigo, who was now in fine form, scored his second try barely two minutes later to level the scores at 24-24.
However, the Junior Boks hit back through wing Duhan van der Merwe as he finished a fine movement to score in the corner, allowing his team to reclaim the lead at 29-24.
Two more tries by Jean-Luc du Plessis (flyhalf) and Warrick Gelant (full back), followed by a second try by Argentine livewire flanker Tomas, took the score to 41-29.
However, it was prop Gigena Facundo who was the last player to score as Argentina signaled their intentions of never giving up, to bring the final score to 41-36 in favour of the Junior Boks."
Lets look at the above selections and performance objectively. It is clear that there were deficiencies in the team as selected - which reduced the potency of the team. It is also weird that Duhan van deer Merwe - who was excellent in all three games - is not in the JWC squad - but was the preferred wing in all three games. Why?
It is good that the two enters performed well as well. But it is among the forwards where it is eviednt that the absence of players like Jakkals Schickerling is weakening the team. Same applies to some of the loosies
What is going on with Duhan van der Merwe in any event - him being the best Under 20 backline player? is he going to NZ or not? Would like to know the answer to that one.
