The Junior Springboks need to find a “connection” between forwards and backs if they hope to beat Fiji in their World Rugby Under-20 Championship opener against Fiji tomorrow.
That was the view of head coach Bafana Nhleko after announcing his match-23 yesterday for the Cape Town Stadium clash (7pm start).
While the wet weather made attacking play difficult in the Rugby Championship in Australia in May, Nhleko wants the backs to make a more sizeable contribution against the Fijians tomorrow.
Captain Zachary Porthen, from Western Province, and the rest of the pack – which also includes Bulls URC lock JF van Heerden – will look to get physical dominance against the Pacific Islanders and generate front-foot ball.
But the Junior Boks need to make use of that possession.
“The biggest thing for us was exposing the players to the understanding of what it means to win Test matches. If you look at the New Zealand game, we were leading until the 77th minute,” Nhleko said yesterday.
“In the Australian game, we were leading until the 77th minute as well, and we ended with a draw and loss in those games. We started well against Argentina, but then released the pressure, and won the game in the last minute.
“The biggest feedback was how to handle momentum, and how to deal with momentum when it’s going against us.
“We needed to improve our set-pieces, and the other thing is that we couldn’t get going from an attacking perspective. Our backs didn’t offer much, purely because of the weather conditions.
“That’s something we would really like to get going – the flow and connection between backs and forwards from an attacking point of view.
“It has been frustrating that we are not playing, we ended up forcing things from the back 50. We’ve got to win the game up front in order to get that thing going with the backs.
“The biggest thing is building that connectivity between backs and forwards. What happened in the TRC is that we just kept on carrying with our forwards, but our backs were not really offering themselves.
“So, they were not connected, and it was almost like two different teams, which is something we’ve worked really hard on.”
In that regard, it will be up to halfbacks Asad Moos and Liam Koen to make things happen with ball-in-hand in what should be dry conditions on an excellent Cape Town Stadium surface.
“They’ve been okay – the one talks a lot, and the other doesn’t talk much! Asad doesn’t say a lot, but when he gets to the field, it seems like he goes mad!” Nhleko said.
“Both of them are cool and calm-headed players. Liam is quite studious about the game, so that has helped him to slot in. We are excited about what he can bring to the team, as we are trying to get that connection on attack.
“He’s had a lot of injuries, so we hope that he has a decent campaign.”
The South Africans suffered three injury withdrawals this week, with prop Reno Hirst, lock Adam de Waal and fullback JC Mars ruled out, and they have been replaced by Herman Lubbe, Jaco Grobbelaar and Hassiem Pead respectively.
Junior Springbok Team
15 Michail Damon 14 Joel Leotlela 13 Jurenzo Julius 12 Joshua Boulle 11 Litelihle Bester 10 Liam Koen 9 Asad Moos 8 Tiaan Jacobs 7 Thabang Mphafi 6 Sibabalwe Mahashe 5 JF van Heerden 4 Bathobele Hlekani 3 Zachary Porthen (captain) 2 Luca Bakkes 1 Ruan Swart.
Bench: 16 Juan Smal 17 Liyema Ntshanga 18 Casper Badenhorst 19 Keanu Coetsee 20 Divan Fuller 21 Ezekiel Ngobeni 22 Tylor Sefoor 23 Likhona Finca.