Wales break Baby Bok hearts

In a match that ebbed and flowed, South Africa looked to have the game in the bag at 17-11.

But with 90 seconds remaining, Wales flyhalf Sam Davies chipped in behind the Baby Bok defence and wing Ashley Evans collected to score near the right-hand corner.

In-form Davies stepped up and coolly slotted the conversion to break Baby Bok hearts and guide Wales to their first ever Junior World Championship Final.

In a tense semifinal showdown, Wales used their rush defence to put the defending champions under pressure. The Welsh pack had the ascendency and on 20 minutes Davies slotted a penalty for Wales to put the first points on the board.

Nine minutes later, Davies doubled the lead with his second penalty but the Baby Boks landed a telling blow when they made the most of a lapse in concentration by Wales just before half-time.

A quick line-out to the front five metres from the Welsh line saw lock Irné Herbst stroll over unopposed by the Welsh defence for the opening try. Centre Handré Pollard slotted the conversion, which saw the Baby Boks lead 7-6 at the break.

Wales regained the lead in the 55th minute when Ellis Jenkins scored a fortuitous try after a strong period of play. The Welsh captain had appeared to have to dropped the ball in contact over the line but the try was awarded.

Davies missed the conversion and the Baby Boks hit back almost immediately when a long pass by Pollard found replacement Kwagga Smith, who beat two defenders to score. Pollard’s conversion made it 14-11 heading into the final quarter.

With Wales tiring at the death, Pollard kicked a penalty to put the Baby Boks six points up with six minutes before some brilliant vision and composure from Davies snatched victory for Wales.

Welsh skipper Jenkins was full of praise for his team. "Unbelievable, it is a bit surreal at the moment. That was tense. We knew it would take something special to break the defence and Sam has dropped that kick on the money for Ash to go over in the corner and then stepped up, nerves of steel and slotted it from the touchline. But I thought our front row were outstanding, and our front five. Absolutely outstanding,” he said.

"Everything hurts, but we played a very good game of rugby. We had our chances and we knew if we stuck to our game plan we would score tries and we did, just in the nick of time. All the talk before the game was about their back three, but I think our back three has been outstanding. It is just a really good feeling when it comes together like that."

Match winner Davies commented: "It was getting hard towards the end of the game and we were running out of options. Their 15 came into the line to make the tackle, there is no-one behind and I have seen the space, dropped it into the corner for our wing who has seen that space, to finish it off.

"I have missed more than I have kicked in my time so it is nice to get that one over to seal that victory. We are over the moon, we have made history in our country, and we move on to the Final and look for another big win there. It is huge, we had a lot of talk about making history, getting to that semi, and then progressing on as we have done today. No other Welsh team at Under-20 level has done that and we are really proud of ourselves."

In other action, two late tries gave Samoa a nailbiting 19-18 win over Fiji in their ninth-place semifinal and Argentina claimed a 22-15 win over Australia in the fifth-place play-offs after two tries from Patricio Fernandez.

More to follow on the day’s remaining matches…

Results and scorers:

South Africa 17-18 Wales

Scorers:
For South Africa:
Tries: Herbst, Smith
Cons: Pollard 2
Pens: Pollard

For Wales:
Tries: Ellis, Evans
Cons: Davies
Pens: Davies 2

Samoa 19-18 Fiji
Scorers:

For Samoa:
Tries: Solia, Ah Ki
Pens: Alatimu 3

For Fiji:
Tries: Waqa, Rokoduru
Cons: Waqa
Pens: Waqa 2

Argentina 22-15 Australia
Scorers:

For Argentina:
Tries: Fernandez 2, Schulz
Cons: Fernandez 2
Pens: Fernandez

For Australia:
Tries: Latu, Paraka
Cons: Burton
Pens: Burton

Yellow cards: Jack Dempsey (Australia, 31), Pablo Matera (Argentina, 80)

 Good on their Juniors for restoring a bit of pride in Welsh rugby after their embarrassing loss to Japan last week... albeit at the expense of our South African friends.

The Du Preez Pollard combination bombed. Switching Pollard between 10 and 12 all season long and switching scrum halves every other game don’t do squat for anyone’s continued confidence. Pollard has lost all the bmt strength if purpose he had a year ago when still a school boy. Just like Hougaard, Sadie and a good few others Bulls have fckd up one more talented young rugby player turned into mediocrity. 
They keep churning this garbage mediocrity out thinking they got some kind of pathetic home based rugby ‘family’ they can brainwash the kids into belief in. 

I agree with regarding Pollard at 12, and yes Nollis Marais played him at 12 for Tuks, but does that mean Dawie Theron should do what Nollis does? Dawie fcked up in this world cup.

Also I take it it is the Bulls's fault for Senatla's, Du Preez's missed tackles? and also why the scrum is in disarray?

You are probably one sour Sharks or Stormers fan and thought at the beginning of this year super rugby competition that this is your year. Wahahahahahaha Don't hate the bulls for topping the SA conference hate your pantsy of a team for doing badly

Spoony the fact is our coach and top brass have no clue. Naturally the opportunistic bulle who know our talent better than we do take advantage. Rassie started to build up a fantastic squad but like Mallet couldnt take the nonsense here and walked. H said he ha sa signiifcantl ysmaller budget than the bulle, However he attracted players down here as they knew what a great coach he was.

Here in the WC we have top rugby schools, excellent club rugby and two top Universities. However we are FAR behind the bulle in our Administration. Idiots are running the show.

Back to the Baby Boks. But again one asks why do we have to suffer bad decisions given the technology available andthe importance of getting it right.  Had the baby boks won this game their chances of retaining the title were good, That said thi steam did not have the quality of last years side.

Two aspects need addressing. Firstly the scrum. One cannot have such poor scrumming. It was better in the second haf but still poor. This actually is a point all SH sides need to bear in mind. The next WC is in NH conditions and the scrum takes on additional importance.

Secondly, if this juniour world cup was given preference we might have seen both Goosen and Jan Serfontein playing. I believe it should be given preference. Goosen was actually under 19 when he played for the Cheetahs and Boks last year!! We wonder why he got injured!  Jan will be sent in against the head hunting samoans- may he come through unscathed. He should have been winning the Junior WC for us!

Man fate was against us for sure. Pollard also hit the posts with one kick. Wales nail it from the touchline etc. Pollard only sunk 50% o fhis goal kicks.

Heyneke already had huge influence last year with Pollard’s selection.
Dawie himself stated that Heyneke had assisted the Baby Boks with their preparation before last years tournie, and suggested that Pollard be given a shot at the expense of Zelinga If I remember correctly.
Lucky for all, it worked out last year…..This year, not so much.
This year I reckon it was Meyer who suggested Pollard play 12 Tuks……
He always seems to want to fuck with players positions and Frankenstein them into being what he wants them to be. Spies: wing to kakkest 8th man in history.
CJ Stander – flank to hooker? Yeah right, I would also have fled.
JJ Engelbrecht – Wing to 13 cos he’s big and strong……
etc
etc
ect
Ok, now the Heyneke choir can start singing.

  Beeno How do you know Willie Le Roux wasn't spotted by WP talent scouts? WP have so many schools and players. And we do not convert flyhalves into wingers then go select them at 15 at international level.

Willie le Roux was a 10 at school. Wanna see pictures? WP do not stockpile talent. They think of ther bigger picture and SA rugby.  

That move is my biggest bug bear, having players bashing it up on their own and then end up either giving away a penalty or losing the ball. We really need to get if out of our games. We have the big forwards, we just need to teach them to run better angles and look for support players. I don't mind having small backs, as long as we can get our forwards to punch holes and get the offload away to them. I would also stop trying to bash it up in the middle of the field. Our forward really need to learn how to clean a ruck out and have better cohesion.

Really dissapointed but the Welsh played a smarter game and had the temperate ment to get 7 points in the last 3 minutes.

Regards to Kolbe and co, they are great attackers but it just showed that in tighter games when they are marked out of the game. It is all about margins of errors and you need to have the mentallity to know when to attack and defend.