Junior Springbok coach Kevin Foote has praised his squad's maturity after the SA U20s beat tournament hosts Georgia 33-5 in a Pool A clash at the Junior World Championship in Tbilisi on Thursday.
The five-tries-to-one margin flatters the ease of the victory, with Foote acknowledging the match was anything but comfortable. Georgia, playing in front of their home crowd, repeatedly disrupted South Africa's attacking rhythm and brought the physical intensity Foote had anticipated.
"It wasn't a pretty game by any stretch of the imagination," said Foote. "We knew it was going to be physical and quite emotional, but I think that we stayed on the right side of the referee. That's important because it shows maturity when you don't retaliate, and obviously when the opportunities came, we managed to capitalise on them."
Three Georgian players were yellow carded during the match, one of which was upgraded to a 20-minute red card at the start of the second half — moments South Africa converted into points.
Despite securing back-to-back pool wins, Foote is not satisfied. "It's certainly good to get a second game under our belts, but it was maybe a little wake-up call for us. We need to sharpen up in certain areas."
South Africa's final pool fixture against Wales now carries semi-final implications, with both sides unbeaten after wins over Georgia and Uruguay respectively. Foote has framed it in straightforward terms: "From here it's knockout rugby. Wales are a good team and they've done really well in the tournament so far, so we're expecting a big challenge. Everyone in the squad has played and we will now turn our attention to Wales."