Junior Springboks are crucial to the domestic game’s surviva
It’s a feather in South African rugby’s cap that the Junior Springboks remain remarkably consistent and competitive in World Rugby’s annual Under-20 World Championships.
There’s an argument to be made that the team over the past few seasons haven’t reached their fullest potential at the tournament, but one can’t complain too much when it’s taken into consideration that since 2010 South Africa have claimed bronze six times, came second in 2014 and won in 2012.
Their only so-called “blowout” was fifth place at 2011’s edition.
The point isn’t how well the Junior Springboks cope at their “world cup”, rather how it remains a remarkably reliable gauge of the local game’s continued depth and competitiveness at franchise and national level.
However, as SA Rugby still navigates the Covid-19 storm that is raging as well as the more entrenched problem of an uncertain economic landscape, it’s rapidly becoming clearer that the Junior Springboks’ class of 2017, led by the Stormers’ Ernst van Rhyn, is now arguably the most important vintage ever of the professional era.
It’s important to point out that South Africa’s national junior teams over the years are a bit like George Orwell’s Animal Farm – they’re not all equal.
In 1999, Eric Sauls masterminded the Boks’ inaugural world Under-21 title with a thrilling win over the Baby All Blacks.
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